AY,  1922 


MEMOIR  54 


CORNELL  UNIVERSITY 
AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATION 


HORSE  RAISING  IN  COLONIAL  NEW  ENGLAND 


DEANE  PHILLIPS 


ITHACA,  NEW  YORK 
PUBLISHED  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY 


jngsSctoolofVeterina,y  Medicine  a^ 

estboro  Road 
^'•''ftnn.  MA  01536 


TUFTS   UNIVERSITY   LIBRARIES 


3  9090  013  402   1 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Source  and  early  development  of  New  England  horses 890 

Usefulness  of  horses  to  the  colonists 891 

Early  importations 892 

Sources  of  New  England  horses 893 

Free  range  and  its  effects 895 

Increase  in  number  of  horses 897 

The  beginning  in  the  export  trade  in  horses 899 

Rise  of  the  sugar  industry  in  the  British  West  Indies 901 

Early  exportation  of  New  England  horses 902 

Horse  stealing 906 

Increasing  demand  for  New  England  horses  from  1700  to  1775 908 

Growth  of  the  sugar  trade  and  expansion  of  the  market  for 

horses 909 

Contraband  trade  during  the  French  and  Indian  War 912 

Changes  in  the  production  of  sugar 913 

Development  of  commercial  horse  raising  from  1700  to  1775 915 

Exportations  from  Rhode  Island  ports 916 

Exportations  from  Connecticut  ports 917 

Sources  of  supply  for  the  export  trade 919 

The  Narragansett  planters  and  their  horses 920 

Decline  in  horse  raising  after  the  Revolution 926 

Citations 930 

Sources  of  information 936 


885 


^  HORSE  RAISING  IN  COLONIAL  NEW  ENGLAND 


k 


HORSE  RAISING  IN  COLONIAL  NEW  ENGLAND 
Deane  Phillips 

With  the  rapid  rise  of  the  sugar  industry  in  the  West  Indies  during 
the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  continental  Britisli 
colonies  in  America  were  called  upon  to  serve  as  the  main  source  of 
supplies  for  the  sugar  plantations.  An  important  trade  grew  up, 
especially  with  the  New  England  region,  in  which  the  islands  received 
lumber,  fish,  foodstuffs  of  various  sorts,  cattle,  and  horses.  In  return 
the  northern  colonies  obtained  sugar,  molasses,  rum,  dyestuffs,  and  — 
of  especial  importance  to  New  England  —  specie  in  various  forms  which 
could  be  used  for  purchasing  manufactured  articles  and  other  needed 
supplies  from  England. 

Horses  were  used  on  the  sugar  plantations  to  turn  the  rollers  of  the 
cane-crushing  mills,  to  haul  the  cane  from  the  fields,  and  to  transport 
sugar  and  supplies.  They  were  in  demand  for  saddle  purposes  also. 
As  far  as  New  England  was  concerned,  there  is  ample  evidence  that 
the  exportation  of  horses  to  supply  this  need  of  the  sugar  islands  formed 
a  very  important  part  of  the  commerce  which  was  carried  on  between 
the  two  groups  of  British  colonies  in  the  New  World,  and  that  it  was 
equally  important  in  the  trade  which  grow  up  between  New  England 
and  the  French  West  Indies  when  these  islands  also  began  the  cultiva- 
tion of  sugar.  The  observations  of  contemporary  writers,  the  reports 
of  the  various  colonial  governors  to  the  Board  of  Trade  in  London, 
port  records  and  various  commercial  statistics  of  the  period  which  have 
been  made  available  by  modern  research,  and  many  other  scattered 
sources  of  information,  indicate  that  this  was  the  case. 

It  is  apparent  that  the  development  of  such  an  export  trade  in  horses 
must  have  stimulated  a  corresponding  development  of  horse  raising 
on  a  commercial  scale.  In  this  memoir  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
gather  together  such  widely  scattered  data  as  are  available  concerning 
this  early  agricultural  enterprise  of  New  England,  and  to  trace  its 
development  and  extent  during  the  colonial  period.  Since,  from  its 
nature,  this  raising  of  horses  was  intimately  bound  up  with  the  sugar 

889 


890  Deane  Phillips 

trade  of  the  West  Indies,  it  has  seemed  advisable  to  give  some  attention 
also  to  the  growth  and  development  of  the  latter  industry. 

SOURCE  AND  EARLY  DEVELOPMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  HORSES 
It  is  not  at  all  certain  that  to  the  early  colonists  New  England 
appeared  as  stern  and  inhospitable  a  shore  as  we  are  sometimes  led  to 
believe.  Hardships  there  were  in  plenty,  and  much  real  privation 
and  want,  but,  on  the  other  Hand,  the  country  gave  to  them  bountifully 
in  many  ways  of  its  own.  Not  the  least  of  its  advantages  in  the  eyes 
of  the  first  settlers  was  the  comparative  abundance  of  pasture  and 
grasses  suitable  for  hay,  which  assured  an  easy  support  for  livestock 
in  numbers  sufficient  for  the  colonists'  needs. 

This  feature  of  the  country  is  frequently  mentioned  in  letters  written 
to  friends  in  England  by  the  early  settlers  and  in  the  accounts  of 
travelers.  Thus  the  Reverend  Mr.  Higginson  (1),^  writing  in  1629, 
describes  the  abundance  of  grass  ^'  which  groweth  everywhere,  both 
verie  thicke,  verie  longe,  and  verie  high  in  divers  places  ' ' ;  and  in 
regard  to  livestock  he  records  further,  "it  do  prosper  and  like  well 
this  countrie."  Another  writer  (2),  possibly  too  ardent  in  his  admira- 
tion for  the  new  land,  compares  the  abundance  of  pasturage  to  "  Hun- 
garia."  Josselyn  (3),  in  his  visits  to  New  England,  also  seems  to 
have  been  impressed  with  its  possibilities  along  this  line,  and  writes  in 
1675  of  the  "  broad  vallies  supplied  with  ample  forage  as  well  as  that 
to  be  found  in  clearings  in  the  forests." 

The  native  grasses  which  furnished  this  forage  were  mainly  of  two 
sorts  —  foul-meadow  grass  and  herd-grass,  or  timothy  (4).  English 
grasses  were  introduced  at  an  early  date  and  were  found  to  grow  well 
in  the  new  land  (5).  Both  the  native  grasses  made  good  hay,  and  this 
fact  rendered  it  possible  to  keep  livestock  with  little  difficulty  in  spite 
of  the  rigors  of  the  New  England  winters.  The  colonists  were  thus 
enabled  to  increase  freely  the  number  of  their  cattle  and  horses  in 
proportion  as  they  found  them  useful.  As  is  shown  later,  they  did  not 
fail  to  avail  themselves  of  this  opportunity,  and  the  increase  that  took 
place  was  a  rapid  one. 


*  Numbers   in   parenthesis   refer   to    tlie   list   of   citations   beginning   on    page   930.     Tlie 
sources  cited  are  given  ui  full  in   the  list  beginning  on  page  930. 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  891 

usefulness  of  horses  to  the  colonists 

Cattle  and  horses  were  of  service  to  the  colonists  in  many  ways.  The 
neat  Cattle  furnished  them  food,  hides  for  leather,  and  oxen  for  draft 
purposes.  Sheep  were  valued  chiefly  for  wool.  Horses  served  to  some 
extent  for  draft,  but  for  ploughing  and  other  heavy  work  they  were 
found  less  serviceable  than  oxen.  Their  most  important  use  was  to 
furnish  means  of  rapid  transportation  from  place  to  place.  In  the 
earliest  days  of  the  settlements  most  of  this  travel  was  on  foot  or  in 
small  boats  (6),  but  by  1652  a  New  England  writer  (7)  could  boast 
of  the  "  wild  and  uncouth  woods  filled  with  frequented  ways  and 
rivers  overlaid  with  bridges  passable  for  both  horse  and  foot."  This 
indicates  in  a  general  way  the  transition  that  soon  took  place,  so  that 
horses  became  of  steadily  increasing  importance  as  the  settlement  of 
the  country  proceeded  and  the  towns  became  more  numerous  and  widely 
separated. 

In  the  difficulties  with  the  Indians,  horses  were  of  especial  advantage 
to  the  colonists.  Not  only  was  this  true  in  the  case  of  offensive  operations 
against  the  savages,  but  in  the  frontier  troubles  which  were  always 
imminent  the  possession  of  horses  enabled  the  settlers  to  bring  aid 
quickly  to  one  another  when  attacked  and  thus  saved  many  an  isolated 
settlement  from  extinction.  That  the  colonists  realized  this  advantage 
is  apparent  from  the  pains  which  they  took  to  prevent  any  horses 
from  coming  into  the  hands  of  the  natives.  In  Plymouth  (8),  in 
Massachusetts  Bay  (9),  and  in  Connecticut  (10),  laws  were  passed  to 
prevent  the  selling  of  any  horses  to  the  natives,  and  even  as  late  as  1665 
it  was  only  after  considerable  debate  that  the  Plymouth  court  allowed 
one  such  sale  to  be  made  to  a  friendly  Indian  for  purposes  of 
"  husbandry  "   (11). 

Lastly,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  horse  racing  was  not  unknown 
even  in  the  early  days  of  the  Puritan  settlement  in  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  colony,  where  the  court  vents  its  dire  condemnation  on  "  certain 
euill  and  disordered  persons  "  who  engaged  in  such  a  breach  of  public 
decorum  (12).  At  a  later  date,  however,  such  racing  came  to  be  a 
recognized  sport  in  Boston  (13),  and  especially  in  Rhode  Island,  where 
races  ivere  very  common  and  often  for  high  stakes  (14).  These  prac- 
tices were  not  frequent  in  the  early  days,  however,  and  came  to  be 


892  Deane  Phillips 

tolerated   only  after  the   country  was  well   settled   and   customs  had 
changed  considerably. 

EARLY    IMPORTATIONS 

The  first  colonists  who  settled  at  Plymouth  in  1620  brought  neither 
iiorses  nor  cattle  with  them  to  the  new  land,  and  it  was  not  until  four 
years  later  that  the  first  neat  was  brought  over  (15).  In  the  same 
year  the  correspondence  of  Governor  Bradford  indicates  that  ''  a  bull 
and  3  or  4  jades  "  were  to  be  shipped  to  him  from  London  to  be  sold 
in  the  colony  (16).  The  first  record  of  the  actual  presence  of  a  horse 
in  Plymouth  seems  to  be  in  1632.  Governor  John  Winthrop,  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  colony,  describes  in  his  diary  a  journey  made  to 
Plymouth  in  that  year,  partly  by  boat  and  partly  on  foot,  and  States 
that  on  his  return  he  was  sent  a  part  of  the  way  on  "  the  Governor's 
mare  "  as  a  mark  of  special  respect  (17). 

However,  from  some  source  —  probably  England,  but  possibly  Hol- 
laiid,  with  whose  ships  the  colonists  had  traded  (18)  — the  Plymouth 
settlers  had  by  1632  obtained  a  considerable  supply  of  cattle,  for  it 
is  stated  by  Governor  Bradford  that  by  this  date  many  persons  had 
been  enriched  by  selling  corn  and  cattle  at  high  prices  to  newcomers 
in  both  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  Bay  and  had  ''  spread  out  on 
f amies  "  for  the  purpose  of  raising  more  (19).  As  to  the  number 
of  horses  in  Plymouth  at  that  time,  however,  no  information  can  be 
gleaned  from  Bradford's  narrative,  for  he,  in  common  with  other 
writers  of  the  period,  uses  the  term  cattle  more  or  less  indiscriminately 
to  cover  any  sort  of  livestock,  including  horses. 

The  richer  Massachusetts  Bay  colony  seems  to  have  been  better  sup- 
plied than  the  colony  at  Plymouth.  The  fleet  that  arrived  with  its 
numerous  settlers  in  the  year  1629  brought  over  also  a  considerable 
number  of  horses  and  cattle,  one  hundred  and  fifteen  head  in  all  (20), 
among  which  were  thirteen  horses  (21).  In  the  following  year  the  ships 
that  brought  over  Governor  Winthrop  and  the  second  group  of  colonists 
had  on  board  two  hundred  and  forty  cows  and  about  sixty  horses,  as 
is  learned  from  Winthrop 's  letters  (22).  Some  of  these  animals  died 
while  en  route  and  it  is  not  certain  just  how  many  were  added  to  the 
stock  of  the  colony,  but  among  the  horses  that  survived  there  were 
both  mares  and  stallions  (23). 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  893 

After  the  arrival  of  these  early  settlers,  the  succeeding  decade  saw 
the  landing  of  a  steady  stream  of  new  colonists  about  the  bay.  It  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  they  also  brought  many  horses,  but  specific 
references  to  such  importations  are  not  frequent.  Sir  Ferdinand  Gorges 
in  1632  wrote  from  England  to  Captain  John  Mason  in  Massachusetts 
promising  to  send  over  several  at  the  first  opportunity  (24),  but  no 
mention  is  made  of  their  arrival.  Winthrop  also  records  a  few  importa- 
tions, but  in  a  casual  and  incidental  fashion  which  implies  that  his 
register  makes  no  attempt  at  completeness  in  this  respect.  Of  those 
noted  by  Winthrop,  the  first  is  in  1633,  when  he  mentions  the  arrival  of 
the  ship  Bi7'd  with  four  mares  on  board  (25),  and  in  the  same  year 
the  Bonaveniure  with  two,  four  having  been  lost  in  transit  (26).  In 
1635  Winthrop  speaks  also  of  the  arrival  of  a  Dutch  vessel  with  "  27 

Flanders  mares and  3  horses  "  (27).     This  last-named  ship 

had  cleared  at  the  Texel  five  weeks  previously,  and  had  thus  made  an 
unusually  quick  voyage  and  one  notable  for  the  fact  that  none  of  her 
cargo  of  livestock  had  been  lost  en  route. 

During  these  early  years,  also,  both  Winthrop  and  Bradford  record 
in  their  journals  the  frequent  arrival  in  the  bay  of  ships  having  cattle 
on  board,  and  it  is  probable,  for  reasons  already  given,  that  these 
**  cattle  "  often  included  some  horses.  The  number  of  such  arrivals 
was  certainly  large.  Winthrop,  for  example,  notes  that  in  1634,  ''  dur- 
ing the  week  the  court  was  in  session  there  came  in  six  ships  with  store 
of  passengers  and  cattle  "  (28).  In  the  same  year  there  were  fourteen 
ships  in  one  month  which  cast  anchor  either  in  Salem  or  in  Boston  (29). 
Many  more  arrivals  probably  went  entirely  unrecorded,  and  therefore 
the  scantiness  of  the  record  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  horses  were 
not  being  brought  into  the  country  in  considerable  quantities.  That 
they  were  being  imported  in  large  numbers  is,  in  fact,  the  only  possible 
conclusion  to  be  drawn  in  view  of  their  great  abundance  a  few  years 
later  —  to  confirm  which  there  is  plenty  of  evidence,  as  will  be  shown 
presently. 

SOURCES   OF    NEW   ENGLAND    HORSES 

Since  the  early  importations  undoubtedly  furnished  the  basic  stock 
from  which  two  noted  American  breeds^ — the  Narragansett  pacers  and 
the  still  more  famous  Morgans  —  were  later  developed,  it  is  worth  while 


894  Deane  Phillips 

to  consider  briefly  the  sources  and  the  general  characteristics  of  t-hese 
first  imported  horses. 

In  view  of  the  lack  of  any  direct  evidence  to  the  contrary,  it  is  fair 
to  assume  that  the  first  shipments  were  mainly  from  England  and  of 
the  small  nondescript  type  which  at  that  time  made  up  the  bulk  of 
the  English  horses  (30).  There  was,  however,  some  admixture  of  other 
blood.  In  the  primary  importation  into  the  Massachusetts  Bay  colony 
in  1629,  three  at  least  are  mentioned  specifically  as  "  having  come  out 
of  Leicestershire  "  (31),  which  at  that  time  was  the  source  of  a  more 
or  less  distinct  type  of  horse  of  a  sort  better  than  the  average  (32). 
The  importation  of  Flemish  mares  also  has  been  noted.  AVallace  con- 
tends that  these  latter  were  not  Flemish  but  were  rather  of  a  Dutch 
type  (33),  but  his  conclusion  is  based  merely  on  the  fact  that  the  vessel 
cleared  from  a  Dutch  port  —  which  does  not  seem  a  very  valid  reason 
for  controverting  Winthrop's  specific  statement  as  to  their  Flemish 
origin,  especially  since  Flemish  horses  were  well  known  at  that  period 
as  a  distinct  type. 

There  is  one  other  possible  source  of  some  of  the  New  England  horses 
which  deserves  consideration,  especially  because  it  may  tend  to  explain 
in  some  measure  the  persistently  small  size  of  these  horses,  even  when 
carefully  bred  —  as  later  they  were  in  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  — 
and,  further,  the  constant  occurrence  among  them  of  individuals  pos- 
sessed of  a  natural  pacing  gait.  This  possible  progenitor  is  to  be  found 
in  the  Irish  hobbies,  a  race  of  small,  hardy,  wild  ponies  existing  in 
Ireland  during  the  first  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  These  horses 
were  in  great  demand  in  England  for  saddle  purposes,  and  were 
exported  thence  in  such  quantities  that  they  are  said  to  have  become 
practically  extinct  in  Ireland  before  the  year  1634  (34).  They  were 
well  known  in  England,  and  their  natural  pacing  gait  made  them 
especially  desirable  in  any  place  where  travel  was  of  necessity  on  horse- 
back (35)  ;  it  is  not  at  all  improbable,  therefore,  that  some  of  them  found 
their  way  to  New  England,  where  they  would  have  been  especially 
serviceable.  There  seems  to  be  no  direct  evidence  to  this  effect,  but  any 
comparison  of  such  fragmentary  descriptions  of  the  two  as  are  available 
discloses  a  rather  striking  similarity  between  these  Irish  hobbies  and 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  895 

the  famous  Narragansett  pacers  which  were  later  developed  in  Rhode 
Island.^ 

FREE  RANGE  AND  ITS  EFFECTS 

From  the  very  earliest  period  of  New  England  history  it  was  cus- 
tomary to  allow  both  horses  and  cattle  to  run  at  large  on  the  public 
commons.  At  times  some  provision  for  a  herdsman  was  made,  but  as 
the  herds  increased  in  numbers  and  the  settlements  became  more  scattered 
the  animals  began  to  roam  more  or  less  at  w411  about  the  settled  areas 
and  often  strayed  away  for  considerable  distances  into  the  forest  or 
were  lost  completely.  Winthrop  records  a  happening  of  this  sort  in  a 
letter  written  to  Governor  Endicott  on  behalf  of  a  widow  whose  horse 
had  been  impressed  for  military  service.  Pleading  her  need  for  the  one 
that  had  been  taken  from  her,  he  says,  ' '  She  hath  another  horse  but 
has  not  seen  him  for  several  months  "  (36).  Strays  of  this  sort  were 
numerous  and  this  often  led  to  many  difficulties  of  ownership,  which  in 
time  compelled  definite  legislative  provisions  to  be  made. 

Where  horse  raising  developed,  as  it  did  later,  on  the  islands  of  Long 
Island  Sound  and  on  the  water-guarded  points  and  necks  of  Rhode 
Island,  this  free  range  was  not  a  serious  problem.  But  where  the 
horses  and  cattle  were  running  loose  about  the  towns  in  a  semi-wild 
state  and  in  ever-increasing  numbers,  many  difficulties  were  bound  to 
arise.  The  chief  trouble  came  from  damage  done  to  gardens  and  crops 
by  herds  of  these  equine  and  bovine  marauders.  At  first  ''  all  greate 
cattle  "  were  herded  by  day  by  a  public  herdsman,  and  the  owners 
were  held  responsible  for  any  harm  inflicted  by  their  animals  after  night- 
fall (37).  But  soon  the  "burden  was  put  on  the  other  side,  and  in 
Massachusetts  Bay,  for  example,  in  1642  the  court  repealed  the  former 
act  and  provided  that  ''  every  man  must  now  secure  his  own  corn  and 
meadow  against  damage  "  (38).  It  was  provided  further  that  only  in 
case  animals  running  at  laro:e  had  broken  through  an  admittedly  strong 
fence  could  the  person  suffering  the  damage  have  any  redress.  Com- 
plaints for  damages  of  this  sort  appear  continually  in  the  court  records 
of  all  the  colonies,  and  it  was  apparently  a  cause  of  endless  litigation, 
Avhich  persisted  until  a  late  date. 


2  A    more    detailecl    discussion    of    ttie    origin    of    the    Narragansett    pacers    is    given    on 
page  922. 


896  *  ■         Deane  Phillips 

Another  difficulty  met  with  as  a  result  of  open-range  conditions  was 
that  of  deterioration  of  the  breed.  AVhatever  may  have  been  the  source 
of  the  New  England  horses,  it  is  clear  that  the  promiscuous  breeding  of 
the  semi-wild  animals  on  the  commons  could  not  be  conducive  to  the 
perpetuation  of  their  best  characteristics,  although  it  may  have  resulted 
in  a  certain  hardiness  by  weeding  out  the  ones  unable  to  stand  the  rigors 
of  this  wild  life.  At  any  rate,  efforts  were  made  before  long  to  prevent 
the  breeding  of  the  obviously  unfit.  In  1668  the  court  in  Massachusetts 
Bay  declared  :  ' '  Whereas,  the  breed  of  horses  is  utterly  spoyled  whereby 

that  useful  creature  will  become  a  burden be  it  enacted  that  no 

stone  horse  above  two  years  old  be  allowed  on  the  commons  or  at  liberty 
unless  he  be  of  comely  proportions  and  fourteen  hands  in  stature  "  (39). 
The  owner  of  a  horse  found  in  violation  of  this  statute  was  to  be  fined, 
and  later  the  amount  of  the  fine  was  raised.  Plymouth  (40)  and  Con- 
necticut (41)  passed  similar  limitations,  the  minimum  stature  in  the 
latter  case  being  set  at  thirteen  hands.  These  restrictions  seem  to  have 
been  fairly  well  enforced  but  could  obviously  result  in  little  improve- 
ment of  the  breed  as  long  as  complete  open-range  conditions  prevailed. 

One  of  the  perplexities  in  all  these  cases  of  damages,  after  horses  and 
cattle  had  become  numerous,  was  for  the  person  whose  premises  had  been 
invaded  to  recognize  whose  animal  it  was  that  had  done  the  damage. 
The  same  difficulty  was  met  Avith  in  fixing  the  fines  for  undersized 
stallions  found  running  at  large.  Often  these  horses  and  cattle  were 
even  strays  from  a  neighboring  town,  which  made  the  problem  still 
more  complicated.  This  led  to  the  passage  of  acts  compelling  the  brand- 
ing of  all  animals  with  both  the  mark  of  the  private  owner  and  that  of 
the  town  of  his  residence.  The  general  court  in  Massachusetts  Bay 
passed  such  an  act  in  1647,  and  in  its  records  are  enumerated  the  marks 
of  thirty-three  different  towns  under  its  jurisdiction  at  the  time  (42). 
In  1656  the  New  Haven  colony  compelled  horses  to  be  branded  (43), 
and  the  other  Connecticut  towns  did  the  same  in  1665  (44).  Rhode 
Island  had  a  similar  provision  (45).  In  the  latter  plantation  in  1686, 
thirty  wild  and  unmarked  horses  were  ordered  caught  and  sold  and 
the  proceeds  employed  to  build  a  prison  and  stocks  (46).  This  was 
the  usual  fate  of  unbranded  animals  or  persistent  strays.  In  1661  the 
court  at  Plymouth,  "  on  complaint  of  some  that  certain  horses  or  horse- 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  897  ' 

kind  belonging"  to  Rhode  Island  are  found  <i'oeing  within  our  libertys.  . .  . 
to  the  great  annoyance  of  Indians  and  English,"  ordered  that  such 
animals  should  be  treated  as  common  strays  and  sold  (47). 

increase  in  number  of  horses 

In  the  two  or  three  decades  following  the  first  importations  there  was 
a  rapid  increase  in  the  number  of  horses  in  New  England,  and  they 
became  abundant  not  only  in  the  region  about  Massachusetts  Bay  but 
also  in  the  newer  settlements  in  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.  As  the 
colonists  pushed  into  these  latter  areas  they  took  horses  and  cattle  with 
them  from  the  earlier  settlements,  and,  finding  the  new  regions  in  some 
places  especially  suitable  for  the  raising  of  livestock,  they  began  to 
engage  in  it  on  a  considerable  scale,  so  that  by  1650  or  soon  afterward 
there. had  come  about  an  abundance  of  both  horses  and  cattle  throiigh 
the  whole  New  England  territory. 

The  increase  which  thus  took  place  is  brought  out  clearly  by  the  course 
of  prices  during  the  period.  In  the  years  of  the  great  immigration  that 
followed  the  first  settlements  on  Massachusetts  Bay,  these  prices  were 
rather  high.  Winthrop,  in  1633,  rates  mares  as  being  worth  £35,  and 
cow^s  from  £20  to  £26  (48).  Two  years  later  the  Flanders  mares,  the 
importation  of  which  has  already  been  noted,  sold  for  £34,  and  heifers 
brought  in  by  the  same  ship  sold  for  £12  each  (49).  During  the  next 
few  years  the  great  number  of  settlers  arriving  caused  prices  to  rise 
even  higher,  and,  as  Bradford  records,  "  ye  anciente  planters  whicl"; 
had  any  stock  begane  to  grow  in  their  estats  and  spread  out  on  farmes 
to  raise  more  "  (50). 

By  1640,  however,  the  supply  had  apparently  overtaken  the  demand 
and  prices  began  to  fall  (51).  By  1645  this  decrease  had  gone  so  far 
that  Winthrop  speaks  of  a  horse  the  price  of  which  he  gives  as  £10  as 
a  '^  costlie  horse  "  (52).  In  1653,  however,  horses  were  still  rated  by 
the  Massachusetts  Bay  court  at  £16  (53),  but  thirteen  years  later,  in 
Connecticut,  they  had  fallen  to  half  that  amount  (54),  and  in  1668  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  court  reduced  the  rate  from  £10  to  £5  (55).  Finally, 
in  1677,  the  rate  was  still  further  reduced  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  and 
horses  were  ordered  to  be  received  at  a  rate  of  £3  for  each  horse  or 
mare  above  three  years  old  and  40  shillings  for  two-year-olds  (56).     In 


898  Deane  Phillips 

the  last-named  case  the  court  stated  specifically  as  its  reason  for  the 
'  reduction  that  horses  had  for  some  time  been  worth  much  less  than  the 
amount  previously  fixed  by  law.  During  this  period  of  falling  prices, 
the  number  of  persons  in  the  country  had  steadily  increased,  roads  were 
being  established,  and  new  agricultural  lands  had  been  opened  up  —  all 
of  which  would  result  in  an  increased  demand  for  horses.  It  appears, 
therefore,  that  the  increase  in  their  numbers  must  have  more  than  kept 
pace  with  the  development  of  the  country,  and  that  the  decrease  in 
prices  was  due  to  the  abundance  of  the  supply  rather  than  to  any 
decreased  need  for  their  services. 

There  is  much  other  evidence  to  indicate  that  by  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century  horses  had  become  very  abundant.  In  1647  those 
running  wild  in  Massachusetts  Bay  were  so  numerous  and  were  doing 
so  much  damage  as  to  call  for  legislative  interference  (57),  while 
Maverick,  writing  a  little  more  than  ten  years  later,   says,   'Mt  is  a 

wonder  to  see  the  great  herds  of  cattle   and  the  great  number 

of  horses  besides  the  many  sent  to  Barbadoes  and  the  other  Carribee 
islands  "  (58).  The  same  condition  is  attested  by  John  Winthrop  the 
younger,  writing  from  Connecticut  in  1660  (59),  and  by  the  report  of 
the  Commissioners  to  New  England  presented  to'  the  Board  of  Trade 
in  London  in  1665  (60).  By  1675,  according  to  AVilliam  Harris,  who 
had  been  sent  out  by  the  Board  of  Trade,  the  country  had  so  many 
horses  '^  that  men  know  not  what  to  do  with  them  "  (61). 

A  still  further  indication  of  the  plentiful  supply  of  horses  in  New 
England  is  the  fact  that  by  this  time  these  colonies  had  begun  as  a 
source  of  supply  for  other  colonies.  In  1642  Massachusetts  Bay  was 
being  called  upon  to  furnish  a  shipment  of  horses  to  Lord  Baltimore's 
colony  in  Maryland  (62),  and  in  the  report  to  the  Board  of  Trade  in 
1665,  already  mentioned,  horses  are  named  as  one  of  the  exports  of 
Massachusetts  to  Barbados  and  Virginia.  A  letter  written  in  1650  by 
Secretary  von  Tienhoven,  of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  indicates 
that  at  that  date  horses  were  being  obtained  from  New  England  by 
the  Dutch  on  the  Hudson  River  (63).  The  letter  in  question  advises  pro- 
spective settlers  in  the  New  Netherlands  to  take  no  horses  with  them 
to  the  new  land,  because  "  they  can  be  got  at  reasonable  expense  from 
the   English  who  have  plenty   of   them."     There   is   appended   also  a 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  899 

table  of  prices  in  "  New  England  "  for  horses,  cows,  and  hogs;  so  there 
can  be  no  doubt  as  to  which  of  the  English  settlements  Von  Tienhoven 
had  in  mind. 

It  is  thus  apparent  that  by  about  the  middle  of  the  century  or  a 
little  later,  New  England  had  come  to  have  an  abundance  of  horses 
more  than  sufficient  for  its  own  needs.  Natural  increase  under  free- 
range  conditions  would  account  for  such  large  numbers  only  if  it  were 
assumed  that  the  importations  during  the  early  years  of  settlement 
were  far  more  numerous  than  have  been  recorded,  or  else  that  such 
importations  continued  throughout  the  whole  period  —  which  does  not 
seem  very  probable.  During  the  latter  part  of  the  years  described, 
however,  the  exportation  of  horses,  which  was  just  beginning,  had  as  a 
result  the  stimulation  of  horse  breeding  for  this  purpose  in  a  more 
careful  manner,  and  probably  accelerated  to  some  extent  the  rate  of 
increase. 

With  the  development  of  this  export  trade  begins  the  second  phase 
of  horse  raising  in  New  England,  resulting  in  many  changes  throughout 
the  area  and  in  the  establishment  of  horse  breeding  as  an  important 
and  extensive  industry  in  certain  favorably  located  sections. 

THE  BEGIXXING  OF  THE  EXPORT  TRADE  IX  HORSES 

As  has  alreadj^  been  indicated,  some  horses  were  exported  from  New 
England  to  the  other  continental  colonies  at  an  early  date.  Such  ship- 
ments, however,  never  came  to  be  of  any  great  importance,  and  are 
worth}^  of  mention  chiefly  to  show  the  relative  abundance  of  horses  in 
New  England  as  compared  with  their  numbers  in  the  neighboring 
colonies.  The  main  demand  that  resulted  in  the  exportation  of  New 
England  horses  came  from  the  sugar  plantations  in  the  West  Indies, 
where  both  horses  and  cattle  were  needed  for  draft  purposes,  to  haul 
the  cane  from  the  fields,  to  transport  sugar  and  supplies,  and  to  turn 
the  heavy  cylinders  in  the  cane-crushing  mills. ^     Horses  were  used  for 

3  Oldmixon  {The  British  Empire  in  America,  vol.  2,  p.  147)  gives  the  following  descrip- 
tion of  the  operation  of  thes"  eanc-crnshing  mills  :  •  They  Liriiid  the  canes  thus  in  the 
cattle  mills ;  The  Horses  and  Cattle  being  put  to  the  tackle,  go  about,  and  turn  by 
sweeps  the  middle  Roller ;  which  being  cogged  to  turn  others  at  the  upper  end,  turn 
them  about.  They  all  three  turn  upon  the  same  centers  which  are  of  Brass  and  Steel, 
going  so  easily  of  themselves,  that  a  Man,  taking  hold  of  one  of  the  Sweeps  with  his 
Hand,  may  turn  all  the  rollers  about ;  but  when  the  canes  are  put  between  the  rollers 
it  is  a  good   Draught  for  five  Oxen  or  Horses." 


900  Deane  Phillips 

saddle  purposes  also  by  the  sugar  planters,  who  were  willing  to  pay 
high  prices  for  superior  animals  of  this  type. 

That  the  New  England  colonies,  rather  than  any  of  the  other  con- 
tinental settlements,  should  have  become  the  accepted  source  of  supply 
for  this  demand  from  the  sugar  islands,  resulted  chiefly  from  the  fact 
that  they  were  the  only  ones  which  possessed  a  surplus  of  horses  at  the 
time  when  the  demand  first  began  to  make  itself  felt,  about  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  In  most  of  the  other  colonies  there  was  an 
actual  scarcity  of  horses,  as  in  Virginia  (64).  The  Dutch  in  New 
Netherlands,  it  is  true,  did  actually  export  some  horses  during  the  year 
1650,  but  an  act  was  soon  passed  which  forbade  such  shipments  (65). 
It  thus  came  about  that  in  the  early  days  of  the  sugar  industry  in 
the  West  Indies,  New  England  had  no  real  competitor  among  the  con- 
tinental colonies  in  supplying  the  growing  demand  for  horses  for  the 
sugar  plantations.  Virginia  furnished  many  cattle  (Q6) ,  and  after 
1700  the  colony  on  the  Hudson  River,  by  that  time  in  English  hands,- 
again  began  the  shipment  of  horses;  but  New  England's  leadership 
in  the  trade  was  never  seriously  threatened  during  the  colonial  period. 

The  continental  American  colonies  proved  to  be  a  convenient  source 
of  supply  to  the  sugar  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  not  only  for  horses 
and  cattle  but  for  many  other  commodities  as  well.  The  trade  in 
horses,  in  short,  was  an  integral  part  of  the  much  more  extensive  com- 
merce which  grew  up  between  the  West  Indies  and  the  northern  British 
colonies  whereby  the  islands  were  supplied  with  timber,  boards,  staves, 
fish,  and  provisions  of  all  sorts,  in  return  for  sugar,  molasses,  rum,  dye- 
stuffs,  and,  most  desirable  of  all,  Spanish  dollars  and  bills  of  exchange 
on  London.  The  extent  of  the  export  trade  in  horses  at  any  particular 
period,  therefore,  was  infiuenced  by  the  condition  of  this  commerce  as 
a  whole  and  by  the  changes  that  took  place  in  the  sugar  industry  itself. 
Wars,  acts  of  Parliament,  competition  between  the  Islands  —  in  short, 
all  factors  that  aided,  hindered,  or  changed  the  direction  of  this  larger 
trade  —  had  their  effect  on  the  exportation  of  horses.  Certain  changes 
in  the  manufacture  of  sugar  which  took  place  during  the  first  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century  also  tended  to  decrease  the  demand  for  horses. 
Since,  therefore,  the  horse  raising  that  developed  in  New  England 
during  the  later  part  of  the  colonial  period  was  essentially  dependent  on 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  901 

this  export  trade,  it  is  necessary  in  any  further  treatment  of  the  subject 
to  consider  in  some  detail  the  rise  and  development  of  the  sugar  industry 
itself. 

RISE    OF    THE    SUGAR   INDUSTRY    IN    THE    BRITISH    WEST   INDIES 

At  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Europe  was  being  sup- 
plied with  sugar  mainly  by  the  Portu<-»-uese,  from  Madeira  and,  more 
especially,  from  their  settlements  on  the  mainland  of  South  America, 
in  Brazil.  The  English  also  had  probably  produced  some  sugar  in 
South  America,  from  Surinam,  before  ceding  that  colonj^  to  the  Dutch 
by  the  treaty  of  Breda  (67),  but  it  was  not  until  they  had  established 
a  settlement  in  Barbados,  one  of  the  Windward  Islands,  that  they  began 
to  be  serious  competitors  of  the  Portuguese. 

The  colony  in  Barbados  had'^een  settled  for  some  time  before  1630, 
but  for  a  considerable  period  it  had  produced  only  indigo,  ginger,  cot- 
ton, and  "  bad  tobacco,"  which  brought  in  but  moderate  returns. 
Sugar  culture  was  introduced  in  or  about  the  year  1642,  and  by  1650 
the  planters  had  grown  proficient  in  its  production  and  were  shipping 
it  to  England  in  considerable  quantities  (68).  The  new  industry  met 
with  remarkable  success  and  within  a  few  years  the  island  had  become 
very  prosperous;  lands  had  increased  greatly  in  value,  and  the  planters 
had  amassed  great  wealth  and  were  found  living  on  a  scale  of  surprising 
pomp  and  luxury.  In  1661  King  Charles  II  created  thirteen  baronets 
from  among  these  planters,  none  of  Avhom  are  said  to  have  had  an  annual 
income  of  less  than  £1000  and  some  of  whom  had  more  than  £10,000 
a  year.  In  the  same  year  the  trade  of  the  island  is  estimated  to  have 
supported  more  than  four  hundred  ships  and  the  value  of  the  exports 
is  placed  as  high  as  £300,000  (69). 

The  great  success  of  Barbados  stimulated  the  growing  of  sugar  on  the 
other  islands  of  the  British  West  Indies.  St.  Christopher  (which  the 
English  share:!  with  the  French),  Nevis,  Montserrat,  Antigua,  and 
lastly,  after  its  capture  from  the  Spanish  in  1655,  Jamaica,  all  came 
into  the  market  with  sugars  and  the  trade  grew  at  a  rapid  rate.  The 
Navigation  Acts,  confining  this  commerce  to  British  bottoms,  soon  made 
London  the  chief  sugar  mart  of  the  world,  whence  the  product  was 
re-exported  by  British  merchants.     English  sugars  undersold  those  of 


902  Deane  Phillips 

the  Portuguese,  and  by  1670  the  latter  had  been  forced  out  of  practically 
all  the  markets  north  of  Cape  Finisterre  (70). 

EARLY   EXPORTATION    OF   NEW   ENGLAND   HORSES 

The  rapid  development  of  the  British  sugar  islands  called  for  great 
quantities  of  supplies  to  carry  on  the  work  of  the  plantations,  and, 
since  the  islands  had  few  resources  of  their  own,  importations  were 
necessary.  Provisions  from  Ireland,  slaves  from  Africa,  shoes  and 
other  manufactured  goods  from  Europe,  as  well  as  the  products  of  the 
continental  British  colonies  —  the  nature  of  which  has  already  been 
indicated  —  all  were  brought  into  the  islands,  and  of  these  supplies 
horses  were   a  not  unimportant   item. 

In  the  earliest  days  of  the  sugar  industry,  trade  was  still  free  and 
the  Dutch  and  the  Portuguese  seem  to  have  furnished  the  British  islands 
with  as  many  horses  as  were  needed  (71).  With  the  stoppage  of  this 
trade  by  laAV  and  the  increasing  development  of  the  plantations,  how- 
ever, recourse  was  had  to  England  and  to  New  England  to  supply  the 
demand.  During  the  period  between  1649  and  1658  the  importations  of 
English  -horses  were  especially  numerous.  In  those  years  there  are 
recorded  in  the  British  Colonial  Papers  forty-eight  different,  permits  for 
such  shipments,  for  a  total  of  more  than  nineteen  hundred  horses  (72). 
England  continued  to  send  horses  until  as  late  as  1667  (73),  but  the 
levying  in  1654  of  an  export  duty  of  20  shillings  a  head  (74)  cut  down 
the  numbers  considerably  and  hastened  the  shift  in  the  trade  by  which 
New  England  at  length  became  almost  the  sole  source  of  supply  for  the 
islands.  In  that  region  there  was  no  export  duty  except  in  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  where  it  was  only  sixpence,  and  the  cost  of  transporta- 
tion was  much  less  because  of  the  shorter  distance,  which  resulted  also 
in  much  smaller  losses  in  transit. 

The  trade  of  Massachusetts  Bay  with  the  West  Indies  had  already 
been  established  before  the  production  of  sugar  in  the  British  islands 
had  come  to  be  of  importance,  and  so  it  is  only  natural  that  with  the 
rise  of  the  latter  industry  and  the  demand  for  horses  the  growing 
surplus  of  New  England  animals  should  receive  the  advantage  of  the 
outlet  thus  opened.  As  a  result,  horses  Avere  being  shipped  from 
Massachusetts  ports  fully  as  early  as  from  those  of  England,  and,  for 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  903 

the  reasons  given,  the  numbers  exported  soon  exceeded  those  from  the 
Eng'lish  ports.  Concerning  the  beginning  of  this  trade  AVinthrop  writes 
in  1647:  ''  It  pleased  the  Lord  to  open  to  ns  a  trade  with  Barbados 
and  the  other  islands  .  .  .  which  as  it  proved  gainful,  so  the 
commodities  which  we  had  in  exchange  for  our  cattle  and  provisions, 
as  sugar,  cotton,  tobacco,  and  indico  were  a  good  help  to  discharge  our 
engagements  with  England  "   (75). 

As  to  whether  there  were  aiiy  horses  among  these  "  cattle  "  which 
Winthrop  states  were  being  sent  to  the  West  Indies,  there  is  no  evi- 
dence. The  record  of  such  exports  is,  in  fact,  much  like  that  of  the 
early  imports  into  the  country,  and  specific  mention  of  such  ship- 
ments is  not  frequent,  even  though  more  general  statements,  such  as 
those  to  be  found  in  the  reports  to  the  Board  of  Trade  in  London, 
indicate  that  they  were  taking  place.  In  1648  Winthrop  notes  in  his 
journal  the  presence  of  a  ship  "  lying  before  Charlestown  with  eighty 
horses  on  board  bound  for  Barbadoes  "  (76),  and  this  is  probably  the 
first  recorded  exportation  of  horses  from  New  England  to  the  West 
Indies.  Wallace  states  (77)  that  there  was  a  shipment  of  eighty  head 
in  1640,  but  he  does  not  give  the  source  of  his  information  and  it  is 
more  than  probable  that  it  is  this  exportation  of  1648  to  which  he  refers, 
inasmuch  as  the  demand  for  horses  had  hardly  begun  in  Barbados  as 
early  as  1640. 

The  exportation  of  horses  from  New  England  in  1648  or  before  was 
evidently  not  limited  to  this  one  cargo,  however,  for  a  writer  who  styles 
himself  Beauchamp  Plantagenet,  describing  a  visit  to  Barbados  in  that 
year,  states  that  ''  New  England  sendeth  horses  and  Virginia  oxen  *' 
to  turn  the  sugar  mills  in  the  island  (78).  In  1649  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  court  passed  an  act  forbidding  the  exportation  of  mares  and  plac- 
ing a  tax  of  sixpence  on  every  gelding  sent  out  of  the  country  (79). 
This  was  obviously  an  effort  in  the  main  to  protect  the  breeding  stock 
of  the  area,  and  Massachusetts  Bay  urged  that  similar  prohibitions  be 
adopted  by  all  the  United  Colonies  of  New  England.  The  colony  at 
New  Haven  was. the  only  one  to  act  on  the  recommendation  (80),  and 
in  Plymouth  and  Rhode  Island  there  continued  to  be  no  restriction  on 
such  shipments.  That  such  a  law  was  found  desirable  in  Massachusetts 
was  due  partly  to  military  considerations,  but  the  fact  serves  also  as 


904  Deane  Phillips 

an  interesting  side  light  on  the  extent  of  the  demand  for  horses,  for 
it  is  clear  that  at  that  time  there  was  no  great  scarcity  of  them  in  the 
region. 

The  trade  between  Massachusetts  Bay  and  Barbados  was  more  or 
less  interrupted  during  the  period  of  the  Commonwealth  in  England,  as 
a  result  of  the  refusal  of  Barbados  to  submit  to  the  new  authority ;  but, 
in  general,  the  exportation  of  horses  from  the  colony  continued  on  a 
considerable  scale,  and  there  is  much  evidence  of  the  growing  dependence 
of  the  islands  on  the  New  England  region  as  a  source  of  supply.  The 
report  of  the  Commissioners  for  New  England  to  the  Board  of  Trade 
in  London  in  1665  states  that  Massachusetts  exported  fish,  pork,  beef, 
horses,  and  corn  to  Virginia  and  Barbados  (81).  Inasmuch  as  horses 
are  not  mentioned  as  a  product  of  any  of  the  other  colonies,  in  the 
report,  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  region  about  Massachusetts  Bay  was 
still  the  chief  source  of  supply  among  the  continental  colonies.  In  1673 
Captain  Gorges  was  instructed  by  the  Assembly  of  Barbados  to  insist 
to  the  English  Parliament  on  the  dependence  of  the  island  on  New 
England  for  "  boards,  timber,  pipe  staves,  and  horses,"  to  the  end  that 
no  acts  might  be  passed  which  would  interfere  with  the  trade  (82).  And 
in  1675  a  certain  *'  Mr.  Harris  of  New  England  "  gave  an  account  of 
the  trade  of  the  country,  in  which  he  says  that  ^'  to  Barbadoes  in 
exchange  for  horses,  beef,  pork,  butter,  cheese,  flour,  peas,  biscuit,  we 
have  sugar  and  indigo  "   (83). 

In  1700  Massachusetts  Bay  was  still  sending  large  numbers  of  horses 
to  Barbados,  and  also  to  the  Leeward  Islands  and  to  Jamaica.  Toward 
the  end  of  the  century,  however,  many  of  the  horses  shipped  were 
animals  that  had  been  raised  farther  inland  and  had  been  driven  con- 
siderable distances  to  be  sent  out  from  the  ports  on  Massachusetts 
Bay  (84).  This  is  shown,  for  example,  by  the  correspondence  of  Waite 
Winthrop  with  his  brother  Fitz-John,  of  Connecticut,  by  which  it 
appears  that  the  latter  was  sending  horses  overland  to  Boston  from  his 
plantation  on  Fisher's  Island,  in  Long  Island  Sound  (85).  There  was 
'thus  taking  place  a  shift  in  the  raising  of  horses  in  New  England,  by 
which  other  regions  than  that  about  Massachusetts  Bay  were  coming 
to  be  of  increasing  importance,  especially  as  regarded  the  export  trade. 

As  the  settlement  of  New  England  proceeded,  it  was  very  soon  dis- 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  905 

covered  that  there  were  certain  areas  in  Rhode  Island  and  in  Con- 
necticut which  were  much  better  adapted  to  the  raising  of  livestock  of 
all  kinds  than  the  region  first  settled  (86).  These  more  favored  areas 
were  found  mainly  in  the  upper  valley  of  the  Connecticut  River, 
along  the  shore  of  Long  Island  Sound,  and  about  Narragansett  Bay  in 
Rhode  Island.  Here  plenty  of  level,  well-watered  pasture  lands  were 
found,  swamp  grasses  which  made  good  hay  were  abundant,  and  in  many 
places  the  grazing  areas  were  intersected  with  salt-water  ponds  and 
lagoons  which  served  to  separate  pasture  land  from  cornfields  far  more 
effectively  than  any  fence  could  have  done.  The  damages  and  end- 
less difficulties  resulting  from  free  range  in  other  less  favored  sections 
made  this  last-named  feature  one  of  no  mean  advantage  in  the  raising 
of  livestock  and  in  the  improvement  of  the  breed.  The  few  cattle,  sheep, 
and  horses  which  the  first  settlers  in  these  regions  brought  with  them 
were  soon  augmented  by  others,  and  before  long  the  obvious  agri- 
cultural advantages  of  the  new  areas  were  being  used  to  their  full 
extent. 

With  the  coming  of  the  demand  for  shipment  to  the  West  Indies, 
horses  and  cattle  were  soon  being  raised  for  export  in  these  more  favored 
districts.  Some  horses  were  apparently  being  shipped  from  Newport 
as  early  as  1656,  but  there  is  some  question  as  to  whether  this  particular 
shipment  did  not  consist  of  horses  stolen  from  Massachusetts  instead 
of  animals  raised  on  Narragansett  Bay  (87).  In  1677,  however.  Cap- 
tain John  Hull  wrote  to  one  of  his  partners  in  the  Pettiquamscut  Pur- 
chase in  Rhode  Island,  proposing  to  build  a  stone  wall  across  Point 
Judith  Neck,  "  so  that  no  mongrel  breed  might  come  among  them,*' 
and  to  raise  a  breed  of  ''  large  and  fair  horses  and  mares  "  for  ship- 
ment to  the  West  Indies  (88).  This  plan  appears  to  have  been  put 
in  operation,  for  not  long  afterward  Hull  wrote  to  a  resident  of  the 
district,  a  certain  William  Hefferman,  accusing  him  of  stealing  horses 
and  rather  tartly  offering  to  give  him  some  horses  that  he  might  have 
no  further  need  to  indulge  in  such  practices  (89).  By  1680  horses  were 
being  shipped  from  Rhode  Island  in  sufficient  quantities  to  be  men- 
tioned by  Governor  Sanford  in  his  reply  to  the  inquiries  sent  out  by 
the  Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  in  which  he  states  that  "  the  princi- 


906  Deane  Phillips 

pal    matters    which    are     exported    among    us    is    horses    and    pro- 
visions "   (90). 

In  Connecticut,  also,  horses  soon  came  to  be  a  recognized  commodity 
of  trade.  From  the  towns  on  the  upper  Connecticut  River,  as  late  as 
1680  many  horses  were  being  driven  overland  to  Boston  to  be  sold, 
presumably  for  the  export  trade  (91).  The  coast  region  of  Connecti- 
cut had  before  this  time  begun  a  direct  trade  with  the  West  Indies, 
In  1667  it  is  recorded  that  a  vessel  had  bcQu  sent  out  from  New  London 
bound  for  the  island  of  Nevis,  from  which  twenty-six  horses  were  lost 
overboard  in  a  storm  (92).  Such  other  evidence  as  is  available  indicates 
that  this  was  not  an  isolated  shipment  from  New  London.  This  port 
was,  in  fact,  so  situated  as  to  draw  not  only  on  a  fairly  well-adapted 
livestock  area  in  Connecticut,  but  also  on  the  most  important  part  of 
the  Rhode  Island  area,  and  with  the  development  that  continued  to 
take  place  it  in  time  became  the  chief  center  for  the  exportation  of 
horses  from  New  England.  In  the  period  before  1700,  however,  New 
London  had  but  made  a  beginning  in  this  trade,  and  this  was  also  the 
condition  of  Newport,  Providence,  and  the  river  towns  of  Connecticut. 

HORSE   STEALING 

One  further  development  took  place  during  the  period  just  described, 
which  casts  an  interesting  side  light  on  the  extent  of  the  export  trade 
in  horses  and  its  effect  on  the  New  England  region.  This  was  th5  grow- 
ing prevalence  of  horse  stealing  throughout  all  the  colonies.  One  of 
the  objects  of  the  branding  of  horses  and  cattle,  already  described, 
was  to  prevent  this  practice.  The  brander  in  most  of  the  towns  was  a 
dignitary  of  no  small  importance,  and  as  a  rule  was  required  not  only 
1o  brand  each  animal  but  also  to  keep  a  record  of  the  operation  in  an 
official  book  together  with  a  description  of  all  the  natural  and  artificial 
marks  on  the  animal  and  the  name  and  residence  of  the  owner.  In 
Rhode  Island  (93)  and  in  Connecticut  (94)  there  were  fixed  severe 
penalties  for  any  person  who  took  or  attempted  to  take  out  of  the  town 
any  horses  or  cattle  without  first  informing  the  official  brander  and 
receiving  his  permission. 

Branding  alone,  however,  did  not  provide  a  very  effective  check  on 
the  stealing  of  horses  and  cattle.  As  the  exportations  grew  in  volume 
and  more  and  more  ports  were  engaged  in  the  trade,  it  became  increas- 


IToRSE  Katrtng  in  Colonial  New  England  907 

ingly  easy  to  conceal  such  thefts  and  the  practice  became  surprisingly 
prevalent.  Miss  Caulkins,  in  her  History  of  New  London  (95),  has 
described  as  follows  the  conditions  during  this  period: 

As  the  West  India  trade  increased  from  year  to  year  the  raising  of  horses  became 
very  profitable  and  many  farmers  entered  into  it  largely.  Lands  being  uninclosed 
it  was  easy  to  riin  sucli  horses  off  to  a  port  where  the  mark  of  the  owner  was 
not  known,  or  the  mark  itself  could  be  altered.  A  bold  rover  in  the  woods  might 
entrap  half  a  dozen  horses  with  ease  and,  shooting  them  off  through  Indian  paths 
by  night,  reach  some  port  in  a  neighboring  colony;  and  before  the  owner  could  get 
track  of  them  they  were  far  off  upon  the  ocean,  out  of  reach  of  proof.  Many 
persons  otherwise  respectable  entered  into  this  jiractice  or  connived  at  it.  Men 
who  would  scorn  to  pocket  sixpence  that  belonged  to  another  seemed  to  think  it 
no  crime  to  throw  a  noose  over  the  head  of  a  horse  running  loose  and  to  nullify 
tlie  signet  of  the  owner  or  engraft  on  it  the  mark  that  designated  their  own 
property. 

Professional  buyers,  called  "  horse  coursers  "  in  the  parlance  of  the 
time,  went  about  the  country  gathering  up  horses  into  pounds  for  sale 
or  driving  them  to  ports  whence  they  were  shipped,  and  very  few  of 
these  persons  escaped  the  suspicion  of  having  at  one  time  or  another 
enlarged  a  drove  by  gathering  into  it  some  to  which  they  had  no  legal 
claim.  Persons  of  considerable  prominence  also  were  implicated,  as 
Miss  Caulkins  indicates;  William  Coddington,  at  one  time  governor  of 
Rhode  Island,  seems  to  have  been  one  of  these  (96). 

Such  delinquency  increased  greatly  in  the  latter  half  of  the  century 
and  the  disclosures  become  more  and  more  frequent.  In  1668.  as  a 
preventive  measure,  the  Massachusetts  Bay  general  court  ordered  a 
toll  book  to  be  kept  in  every  town,  in  which  was  to  be  entered  a  descrip- 
tion of  each  horse,  and  a  voucher  was  to  be  given  to  the  owner  to  prove 
his  property  (97).  It  was  necessary  to  present  this  voucher  in  case 
of  any  subsequent  sale.  As  has  been  noted,  both  Rhode  Island  and 
Connecticut  had  passed  laws  forbidding  the  taking  of  horses  beyond 
their  jurisdiction  unless  first  recorded  by  the  town  recorder.  In  1684 
court  was  held  at  Stonington  for  the  trial  of  horse  coursers.  Two 
persons  were  convicted  and  sentenced  to  pay  fines  of  £10  and  to  receive 
fifteen  lashes  (98).  The  court  calls  the  offense  ''  a  crjdng  evil  "  au'ainst 
which  all  well-disposed  persons  were  bound  to  give  aid.  In  1700  a 
special  court  was  held  at  New  London  for  the  sole  purpose  of  tryiiig 
horse  thieves,  and  the  penalties  for  such  thieving  were  made  more 
severe   (99).     Finally,  in  1701  a  toll  book  was  ordered  to  be  kept  in 


908  Deane  Phillips 

every  seaport  town  in  Massachusetts,  in  which  were  to  be  entered  the 
number,  description,  destination,  and  vessel  on  w^hich  it  was  shipped, 
of  every  horse  sent  out  of  the  colon}^,  as  well  as  the  name  of  the  owner 
of  the  horse  and  his  place  of  residence.  For  any  violations  a  fine  of 
£10  was  to  be  inflicted  for  each  horse  sent  out   (100). 

The  incentive  for  most  of  this  stealing  was,  of  course,  the  export 
trade  to  the  West  Indies,  which  made  the  thieving  both  possible  and 
profitable.  The  prevalence  and  widespread  extent  of  this  practice  is 
but  one  more  indication  of  the  importance  and  magnitude  of  the  export 
trade  itself  during  this  period.  It  is  therefore  probably  no  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  by  the  year  1700,  horses  were  being  raised  for  shipment 
to  the  West  Indies  throughout  the  whole  New  England  area  —  to  such 
an  extent  had  the  trade  developed  in  the  space  of  fifty  years.  It  is 
apparent,  how^ever,  that  by  this  time  a  shift  was  taking  place  in  the 
center  of  the  trade,  from  its  early  location  in  the  ports  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  to  those  of  Rhode  Island  and,  especially,  Connecticut. 

These  shipments  of  horses  were  carried  on  the  decks  of  the  vessels 
engaged  in  the  West  Indies  trade,  so  that  nearly  every  ship  could 
transport  a  few  animals  on  the  southward  voyage.  Since  the  ships 
engaged  in  the  trade  were  numerous  and  since  they  usually  made  two 
trips  a  year  (101),  the  possible  shipments  of  horses  were  large.  By  the 
end  of  the  period,  also,  a  beginning  had  been  made  in  the  building  of 
vessels  with  more  ample  deck  space  to  provide  room  for  the  livestock 
shipments,  and  these  "  horse  jockeys,"  as  such  vessels  were  called 
(102),  played  an  important  part  in  the  West  Indies  trade  during  the 
century  that  followed. 

INCREASING  DEMAND  FOR  NEW  ENGLAND  HORSES  FROM  1700  TO  1775 
The  exportation  of  horses,  which  by  1700  had  become  a  well-estab- 
lished part  of  the  trade  of  New  England  with  the  British  sugar  colonies, 
continued  on  an  increasing  scale  during  the  century  that  followed. 
About  1700,  however,  the  demand  for  supplies  for  the  islands  began 
to  be  greatly  augmented  by  the  entrance  into  the  market  of  the  Dutch 
and  French  West  Indies,  which  were  beginning  in  their  turn  to  develop 
the  raising  of  sugar  on  an  extensive  scale.  A  steady  increase  in  New 
England  exports    was   a  reflection    of   these  changes  that  were  taking 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  ICngland  909 

place  in  the  sugar  industry,  and  horses  continued  to  be  an  important 
item  in  the  exchanges.  In  the  various  ups  and  downs  of  the  sugar 
trade,  therefore,  is  to  be  found  the  explanation  for  corresponding 
changes  in  the  raising  of  horses  which  took  place  in  New  England  dur- 
ing the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

GROWTH  OF  THE  SUGAR  TRADE  AND  EXPANSION  OF  THE  MARKET  FOR  HORSES 

In  1698  a  decree  of  the  Roj^al  Council  of  France  allowed  sugar  from 
the  French  islands,  which  were  at  that  time  producing  only  small 
quantities,  to  be  sent  directly  to  any  port  in  Europe.  This  proved  a 
great  stimulus  to  the  development  of  the  French  colonies,  and  after 
the  Peace  of  Utrecht  the  growth  of  these  was  rapid  (103).  Martinique, 
Guadeloupe,  Dominica,  and  Santo  Domingo  —  the  French  colony  on 
the  island  of  Hispaniola,  or  Haiti  —  all  came  into  the  market  with 
sugars.  Prices  fell  off  sharply  as  a  result  of  the  increased  production 
(104),  and  the  British  islands  —  partly,  at  least,  because  of  the  law 
compelling  them  to  send  their  sugar  first  to  England,  from  whence  it 
was  re-exported^ — found  it  difficult  to  compete  with  the  French,  who 
were  soon  in  a  fair  way  to  oust  the  British  from  their  leadership  in  the 
trade  (105). 

The  continental  British  colonies  were  not  slow  in  taking  advantage 
of  the  new  outlet  for  their  products  which  was  thus  opened  up,  especially 
as  the  trade  with  the  French  proved  to  be  very  profitable.  The  French 
home  market  was  closed  to  the  importation  of  rum — which,  distilled 
from  molasses,  was  an  important  by-product  of  the  manufacture  of 
sugar  —  and  as  a  result  the  French  planters  were  willing  to  sell  their 
molasses  much  more  cheaply  than  were  the  British.  This  molasses  was 
eagerly  taken  by  the  New  England  traders  in  exchange  for  the  usual 
plantation  supplies,  and  was  brought  back  to  New  England,  distilled 
into  rum,  and  used  to  advantage  in  exchanging  for  furs  and  in  the 
African  slave  trade. 

Most  of  the  trade  with  the  French  islands  was  carried  on  by  direct 
voyages  to  their  ports,  and  some  supplies  were  furnished  in  this  way 


■*  According  to  Ashley  (The  British  Colonies  in  America,  vol.  1,  app.  1.  p.  75)  the 
rp-pxports  from  Englnnd  during  thp  period  tinder  discussion  were  as  follows  :  1713— 
1715.  18.000  hogsheads  a  year ;  1715-1719.  17.000  hogsheads  a  year;  1733-1736,  2300 
hogsheads  a  year  ;   1737-1739,  not  more  than  450  hogsheads   a  jear. 


910  Deane  Phillips 

to  the  Dutch,  who  were  increasing  their  sugar  production  in  Surinam. 
There  grew  up  in  addition  a  very  considerable  indirect  trade  by  way 
of  the  barren  Dutch  island  of  Curagao,  where  the  Dutch  had  established 
a  free  port.  This  port  soon  became  a  great  entrepot  for  all  the  West 
Indies.  Here  were  landed  the  supplies  brought  by  the  New  England 
vessels,  which  returned  home  laden  with  sugar,  molasses,  and  the  other 
products  of  the  islands,  while  the  lumber,  horses,  provisions,  and  other 
supplies  brought  by  them  were  either  transferred  directly  to  island 
vessels  or  put  ashore  and  peddled  out  among  the  islands  by  the  Dutch 
at  their  leisure  (106). 

During  this  time  New  England  horses  continued  to  be  sent,  as 
formerly,  to  the  British  islands  along  with  the  other  customary  sup- 
plies, but  there  is  much  evidence  that  they  were  equally  important  in 
the  trade  with  the  Dutch  and  the  French.  At  Curacao  they  were 
received  in  considerable  quantities  and  many  were  put  ashore  on  the 
neighboring  islands  of  Boneiray  (or  Bonaire)  and  Aruba  (107).  Here 
they  were  kept  until  there  was  a  call  for  them  in  the  trade  carried  on 
at  Curacao.  At  Surinam  no  vessel  was  allowed  to  trade  unless  it  brought 
in  horses  as  part  of  its  cargo  (108),  and  the  various  reports  to  the 
Lords  of  Trade  made  by  the  governors  of  the  continental  British 
colonies  indicate  that  this  Dutch  colony  was  a.  frequent  destination  for 
the  horses  sent  out  from  their  ports  (109).  Another  and  more  con- 
fidential report  made  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  in  1721  "  On  the  State 
of  the  British  Plantations  in  America  "  states  that  ''  the  trade  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  consists  chiefly  in  the  exj^ort  of  horses  to  Surinam 
and  to  Martinico  and  other  French  islands,  which  is  a  great  discourage- 
ment to  the  planters  in  the  British  islands  for  without  these  horses 
French  and  Dutch  could  not  carry  on  their  sugar  trade  "  (110).  In 
1743,  Ashley,  writing  on  the  condition  of  the  British  colonies,  also 
notes  horses  as  one  of  the  important  items  with  which  the  French  and 
the  Dutch  are  supplied  by  the  continental  colonies  (111),  and  his 
statement  is  confirmed  by  that  of  other  contemporary  writers  and, 
especially,  by  reports  of  the  various  British  governors  to  the  Board  of 
Trade  in  London. 

There  are  maiiy  other  indications  that  this  trade  in  horses  between 
New  England  and  the  Dutch  and  French  islands  was  extensive.     Gov- 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  911 

ernoi'  Robert  Lowtlicr,  of  Barbados,  writing  to  the  Board  of  Trade  as 
early  as  1715,  states:  '^  It  would  be  of  great  advantage  to  this  place^ 
and  to  all  his  Majesty's  Sugar  Colonies,  if  there  was  made  a  law  in 
England  to  Restrain  His  Subjects  in  North  America  from  exporting 
Horses  into  any  country  not  under  his  Majesty's  Dominion,  for  the 
French  at  Martinique  and  Guadelupe  and  the  Dutch  at  Soronam  begin 
to  rival  us  in  the  sugar  trade  and  this  is  owing  to  the  great  Supplies 
of  Horses  thej^  receive  from  New  England  "  (112).  Other  British 
governors  and  numerous  sugar  planters  continued  to  write  to  the  Board 
of  Trade  in  a  similar  vein,  protesting  especially  against  the  trade 
between  the  northern  colonies  and  the  French,  which  they  claimed  was 
in  violation  of  the  treaty  of  neutrality  made  in  1686  between  Great 
Britain  and  France. 

The  matter  came  to  a  climax  in  1731,  when  the  British  planters 
presented  a  petition  to  Parliament  with  a  draft  of  a  bill  which  would 
specifically  forbid  the  continental  colonies  to  sell  ''  horses,  lumber,  and 
provisions  "  to  any  but  British  subjects  (113).  Hearings  were  held 
on  this  bill  and  much  evidence  was  brought  out  to  indicate  that  the 
trade  in  horses  was  a  very  important  part  of  this  commerce.  The 
testimony  of  a  certain  William  Eraser  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  large 
amount  of  evidence  in  this  connection.  In  1729  he  claimed  to  have 
seen  about  thirty  New  England  vessels  at  Martinique  and  St.  Lucia 
trading  horses  for  molasses,  and  he  stated  further  that  the  New  Eng- 
landers  told  him  that  if  they  brought  in  sixty  horses  alive  they  paid 
nothing  for  their  permission  to  trade. 

The  .continental  colonies  vigorously  defended  their  right  to  trade 
with  the  French  and  the  Dutch,  and  the  bill  finally  failed  to  pass.^  A 
long  and  acrimonious  discussion  ensued,  finally  resulting  in  the  passage 
of  the  so-called  "Molasses  Act, "*^  which,  by  putting  a  prohibitive  duty 
on  the  importation  of  foreign  sugar,  molasses,  and  sirups,  aimed  to  put 
an  end  to  the  questioned  trade.  This  act,  however,  because  of  the  lack 
of  adequate  machinery  for  its  enforcement,  could  not  at  that  time  be 

5  An  incorrect  statement  to  ithe  effect  that  such  sales  of  horses  to  foreign  sugar  islands 
were  prohibited  in  1731  appears  in  the  volume  on  Rhode  Island  Commerce,  Massachusetts 
Historical   Society,   Collections.   7th  ser.,  vol.   9,  no.   69,  p.   14,   note   2, 

«  6th  George  II,  Chapter  13.  This  act  provided  for  a  duty  of  sixpence  a  gallon  on 
molasses  and  sirups,  and  five  shillings  a  hundred  pounds  on  sugar  imported  from  any 
foreign  American  plantation  into  any  British  colony.  Importations  from  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  sources  were  exempted,  thus  maliing  the  act  in  effect  a  hindrance  only  to 
trade  with  the  French  and  the  Dutch. 


912  Deane  Phillips 

made  effective  —  especially  since  it  would  have  been  fatal  to  a  trade 
which  had  now  become  a  vital  necessity  to  the  continental  colonies.  It 
was  not  until  a  considerably  later  time,  when  the  restrictions  were 
revived  under  Grenville's  ministry,  that  the  act  really  was  enforced 
(114).  The  trade  during  the  period  in  question  therefore  continued 
practically  unchecked,  and  New  England  still  succeeded  in  furnish- 
ing all  the  West  Indies  with  horses  as  well  as  other  supplies. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  during  this  time  horses  were  a  very  impor- 
tant source  of  income  to  the  New  England  colonies.  They  are  invariably 
mentioned  first  among  the  products  of  Ehocle  Island  in  the  reports 
made  by  the  various  governors  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  in  London  (115). 
The  extent  of  the  shipments  is  noted  also  by  most  of  the  contemporary 
writers  of  the  period  —  ^' vast  quantities  of  lumber  and  horses  sent 
out  by  the  New  Englanders  "  (116),  as  one  writer  has  described  it. 
Some'  idea  of  the  importance  of  the  trade  may  be  gained  also  from 
the  complaints  of  the  British  planters,  already  mentioned,  because  of 
the  supply  furnished  to  their  competitors,  the  French  (117).  The 
reports  of  the  governors  of  New  York  during  this  period  indicate  that 
this  colony  also  was  exporting  some  horses  at  this  time  (118),  but  not 
in  sufficient  quantities  to  threaten  the  leadership  of  New  England  in 
the  trade. 

CONTRABAND   TRADE  DURING   THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

During  the  years  from  1755  to  1763,  the  period  of  the  struggle  between 
France  and  Great  Britain  for  supremacy  in  America,  the  trade  of  all 
the  islands  of  the  "West  Indies  suffered  more  or  less.  The  French 
sugar  planters  especially,  because  of  British  dominance  on  the  sea,  were 
often  in  serious  difficulties.  Nevertheless,  plantation  supplies  con- 
tinued to  be  sent  out  from  the  continental  colonies  to  both  British  and 
French  islands.  The  trade  with  the  French  islands  was  of  course  con- 
traband, but  through  various  devices  it  continued  to  be  conducted  on 
a  very  considerable  scale,  and  by  this  means  French  sugar  and  molasses 
still  found  aji  outlet  and  the  needed  supplies  were  obtained. 

Some  of  this  trade  with  the  enemy  on  the  part  of  the  continental 
colonies  was  carried  on  directly  under  the  protection  of  flags  of  truce 
granted  by  the  colonial  governors  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  exchang- 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  913 

ing  prisoners,  and  in  other  ways.  A  very  considerable  part  of  the 
contraband  trading,  however,  was  of  a  more  roundabout  sort  and  was 
effected  through  the  neutral  Dutch  and  Spanish  ports.  At  first  the 
Dutch  islands  of  Curayao  and  St.  Eustatius  were  the  centers  of  this 
trade,  but,  being  broken  up  in  these  places  by  the  British  fleet,  the 
trade  transferred  itself  to  the  Spanish  port  of  Monte  Christi  adjacent 
to  the  French  settlements  on  the  island  of  Haiti.  Here  resorted  New 
England  vessels  laden  with  the  customary  plantation  supplies,  which 
they  exchanged  at  very  profitable  rates  for  French  sugar  and  molasses 
in  addition  to  bringing  in  European  goods  and  taking  back  part  pay- 
ments in  coin  (119). 

Thus,  in  spite  of  difficulties,  it  w^as  still  possible  to  find  an  outlet 
for  New  England  horses,  and  these  continued  to  be  supplied  to  both 
French  and  British  planters.  This  is  indicated,  for  example,  by  the 
complaint  of  Governor  Hardy  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  in  1757  to  the 
effect  that  the  New  England  colonies  still  continued  to  send  supplies 
to  the  enemy.  Governor  Hardy  mentions  a  privateer  ^'  lately  come 
into  port  which  reports  having  spoke  several  vessels  off  Block  Island 
bound  for  the  Indies  with  horses  notwithstanding  the  general  embargo 
agreed  on  bj^  the  several  governors  "  (120).  In  1762  also  the  British 
fleet  in  the  Bahamas  seized  a  similar  vessel  bound  for  Cayenne  with 
lumber,   provisions,   and  horses    (121). 

After  the  conclusion  of  peace  between  France  and  Great  Britain 
in  1763,  the  commerce  between  the  northern  colonies  and  the  British 
islands  went  on  as  before.  Between  that  date  and  the  beginning  of 
the  American  Revolution,  horses  were  again  a  considerable  item 
of  exchange.  In  the  years  1771  and  1774,  according  to  the  record  of 
the  Secretary  of  Customs  in  London,  there  were  imported  into  the 
British  islands  from  "  North  America  "  a  total  of  3647  oxen  and 
7130  horses  (122).  The  trade  with  the  French  islands,  however,  fell 
off  considerably  ])ecause  of  the  resurrection  of  the  Molasses  Act  and 
the  establishment  of  means  for  its  adequate  enforcement,  as  well  as 
other  trade  acts  that  were  passed   (123). 

changes  in  the  production  of  sugar 
In  addition  to  the  effect  of  the  continued  growth  of  both  British  and 
French  sugar  plantations  throughout  this  period,  with  the  various  inter- 


914  Deane  Phillips 

ruptions  in  the  trade  resulting  from  wars,  acts  of  Parliament,  and 
other  causes,  there  remained  still  another  factor  that  affected  the  demand 
for  horses.  This  was  a  change  in  the  methods  of  manufacture  of  sugar, 
which  took  place  in  connection  with  a  shift  in  the  center  of  production 
from  the  small  islands,  such  as  Barbados,  Antigua,  and  Guadeloupe, 
to  the  larger  ones  such  as  Jamaica  and  Haiti. 

The  advantages  of  the  larger  islands  for  the  production  of  sugar 
were  numerous,  and  they  early  became  apparent  to  both  the  British  and 
the  French.  In  both  Jamaica  and  Santo  Domingo  there  were  extensive 
savannas  where  pasturage  was  abundant,  and  the  planters  thus  were 
able  to  produce  in  some  measure  the  livestock  needed  for  draft  pur- 
poses on  the  plantations  as  well  as  some  to  be  used  for  food;  in  addition, 
both  islands  were  well  stocked  with  wild  horses  and  cattle  left  from 
the  former  Spanish  occupation;  (124)  and,  further,  there  was  plenty 
of  timber  to  be  found,  of  a  sort  which  could  be  used  in  constructing 
sugar  mills."^  In  Jamaica,  at  least,  sugar  could  be  cured  more  quickly 
than  in  the  islands  of  the  Windward  group  (125).  Another  factor, 
probably  of  more  importance  than  any  of  the  others,  was  the  presence 
of  numerous  streams  capable  of  furnishing  water  power  for  turning 
the  heavy  cylinders  of  the  cane-crushing  mills  (126).  All  of  these 
conditions  tended  to  facilitate  the  production  of  sugar,  and  as  a  result 
Jamaica  and  Santo  Domingo  were  enabled  to  increase  their  output  at 
a  more  rapid  rate  than  the  small  islands  could  do. 

The  use  of  water  power  for  driving  the  cane  mills  naturally  removed 
the  need  for  horses  and  cattle  for  this  task.  A  similar  displacement 
took  place  to  some  extent  even  in  the  colonies  not  possessed  of  adequate 
water  power.  In  such  colonies  resort  Avas  had  to  wind-driven  mills, 
and  in  Barbados,  for  example,  according  to  Oldmixon,  there  were  by 
1741  forty  mills  of  this  type  to  one  of  the  earlier  sort  (127).  On  the 
whole,  however,  there  pi'obably  remained  in  operation  a  very  considerable 
number  of  the  older  horse  and  cattle  mills,  and  this,  together  with  the 
fact  that  they  were  still  needed  to  haul  supplies  and  to  bring  the  canes 
from   the   field,   continued   to   make   horses   an   important   item   in   the 


^  .Tamaica  was  taken  by  the  English  from  Spain  in  1655,  and  was  found  to  be  so 
well  stocked  with  horses  and  cattle  that  it  was  at  once  proposed  to  supply  Barbados 
and  the  other  British  colonies  from  there.  This  plan  was  given  up,  however,  because 
of  the  difficulty  of  sailing  from  Jamaica  to  the  Windward  Islands  due  to  the  prevailing 
winds.  '  i  '       ■ 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  915 

needed  supplies  for  the  sugar  plantations.  Also,  in  Jamaica  and  in 
Santo  Domingo,  in  spite  of  their  own  abundance  of  livestock,  numerous 
instances  are  recorded  of  their  continued  importation  throughout  the 
period  (128).  Lasth^,  the  demand  for  saddle  horses  was  a  continuous 
and  important  one  in  all  the  sugar  colonies  and,  further,  was  a  demand 
which  grew  with  the  general  increase  in  the  wealth  of  the  planters. 
In  short,  it  would  seem  that  whatever  decrease  in  the  demand  for 
horses  may  have  resulted  from  the  shift  in  the  center  of  sugar  produc- 
tion and  changes  in  the  method  of  manufacture,  such  decrease  was 
fully  balanced  by  the  mere  aggregate  of  the  demand  from  the  steadily 
increasing  number  of  the  plantations  and  the  extensiveness  of  their 
operations. 

Throughout  the  whole  period  from  1700  to  1775,  therefore,  there 
existed  in  the  West  Indies  a  ready  market  for  horses  which  was  taken 
full  advantage  of  by  the  New  England  colonies,  following  the  begin- 
ning already  made  in  this  sort  of  trade  before  1700.  During  the  later 
period,  however,  the  trade  was  not  confined  to  the  British  islands,  as 
formerly,  but  had  extended  to  those  belonging  to  the  Dutch  and  the 
French  as  well;  it  was  better  organized  and  on  a  much  more  extensive 
scale;  and,  though  interrupted  in  various  ways  from  time  to  time,  it 
had  come  to  be  an  important  part  of  the  commerce  of  New  England  and 
remained  so  until  the  War  of  the  Revolution. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  COMMERCIAL  HORSE  RALSING  FROM  1700  TO  1775 
The  steadily  widening  market  for  horses  which  was  opened  up  dur- 
ing the  period  from  1700  to  1775  has  just  been  described.  It  is  apparent 
also,  from  the  evidence  given,  that  New  England  took  full  advantage 
of  the  opportunity  for  exporting  horses  which  was  thus  presented. 
There  noAV  remains  to  be  considered  the  resulting  development  which 
took  place  in  New  England  itself  during  this  same  period,  whereby 
the  raising  of  horses  on  a  commercial  scale  became  an  important 
industrj^ 

For  the  beginning  of  this  development  no  exact  date  can  be  set,  but 
early  efforts  along  this  line  before  1700  have  already  been  indicated  — 
as,  for  example,  the  plans  of  John  Hull  and  his  associates  in  the  Pet- 
tiquamscut  Purchase  in  Rhode  Island.  Most  of  the  early  shipments  of 
horses  to  Barbados  and  the  other  British  colonies  prior  to  1700,  how- 


916  Deane  Phillips 

ever,  were  in  the  nature  of  a  disposal  of  an  already  existing  surplus  of 
horses.  But  with  the  settlement  of  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  these 
regions  soon  adopted  the  raising  of  horses  for  export  as  a  regular  source 
of  income,  and  their  ports  at  length  came  to  displace  those  on  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  as  leaders  in  the  trade. 

Some  of  the  reasons  for  the  development  of  the  industry  in  the  newer 
regions  have  already  been  indicated.  The  broader  and  more  level  low- 
lands, extensive  salt  marshes  to  furnish  hay,  lagoons  and  ponds  to  serve 
as  natural  boundaries  for  the  pastures,  all  combined  to  give  these  regions 
an  advantage.  To  this  should  be  added  the  fact  that  much  of  this 
abundant  marsh  and  other  forage  was  easily  accessible  for  boats,  which 
could  make  their  way  into  the  numberless  small  streams  and  inlets  and 
there  be  loaded  with  little  difficultj^^  This  was  a  matter  of  no  small 
gain  when  it  is  remembered  how  difficult  it  would  have  been  to  trans- 
port such  a  bulky  commodity  as  hay  over  the  rough  frontier  roads  of 
the  period.  Forage  of  some  sort  was  a  very  necessary  part  of  the  cargo 
of  the  vessels  carrying  horses  to  the  Indies,  for  the  horses  must  be 
fed  in  transit,  and  the  hay,  even  though  it  was  commonly  pressed  into 
rough  bales  ( 129 ) ,  was  an  unwieldly  article  to  handle ;  while  the  horses 
themselves,  if  necessary,  could  be  driven  long  distances  to  the  point 
of  embarkation. 

The  development  of  horse  raising  as  an  industry  in  Rhode  Island  and 
Connecticut  went  hand  in  hand  with  the  development  of  the  commerce 
of  these  colonies  with  the  sugar  islands.  Its  extent,  however,  must 
mainly  be  inferred  from  mention  of  it  in  the  reports  of  the  various 
governors  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  in  London  and  from  such  fragmentary 
records  of  actual  shipments  as  are  available. 

EXPORTATIONS    FROM   RHODE   ISLAND   PORTS 

The  Rhode  Island  ports  were  the  first  in  the  new  region  to  embark  in 
the  export  trade,  and  even  as  early  as  1681  horses  are  mentioned  by 
Governor  Sanford  as  one  of  the  "  principall  matters  of  export  "  (130). 
In  the  next  twenty  years  the  shipping  had  increased  ''  sixfold  "  and 
horses   were   being    sent   to    Jamaica,    Barbados,    Nevis,    Antigua,    St. 


*  As  early  as  1749,  hay  was  being  shipped  from  the  region  by  boat  to  other  places 
in  New  England  which  were  less  well  supplied.  (Elliot,  Essays  upon  Field  Husbandry, 
2d,  p.  21.) 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  917 

Christopher,  Montserrat,  and  Surinam  (131).  In  1731  Governor  Jenks 
places  them  first  in  importance  among  the  exports  of  the  colony,  and 
states  that  at  that  time  there  were  ten  or  twelve  vessels  engaged  in 
the  West  Indies  trade  (132).  Ten  years  later  the  number  of  vessels 
had  grown  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  (133).  Douglass  also  confirms 
the  importance  to  the  Rhode  Islanders  of  horses  as  an  article  of  com- 
merce (134),  while  the  Reverend  James  MacSparran,  for  a  long  time 
resident  in  the  colony,  tells  of  the  "  fine  horses  which  are  exported  to 
all  parts  of  English  America  "  (135). 

Newport  and  Providence  were  the  main  ports  of  embarkation,  but 
many  horses  were  shipped  on  small  vessels  directly  from  the  farms 
in  the  Narragansett  country  (136),  where  was  found  the  greatest  center 
of  the  livestock  production.  In  1745  Moses  Brown,  one  of  the  more 
prominent  of  the  Providence  merchants,  had  eight  vessels  under  his 
management,  ^'  some  to  Surinam  with  horses  "  (137)  ;  while  the  cor- 
respondence of  one  Newport  firm  indicates  that  during  the  years  from 
1731  to  1773  this  firm  was  shipping  horses  as  a  regular  part  of  its 
cargoes  to  all  the  British  islands  and  to  Curagao  (138). 

EXPORTATIONS  from   CONNECTICUT  PORTS 

At  the  outset  the  horses  sent  out  from  Rhode  Island  came  into  com- 
petition with  those  that  continued  to  be  sent  from  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  region,  but  before  long  it  was  Connecticut  that  had  come  to  be 
the  chief  rival  in  the  trade.®  The  renewed  enforcement  of  the  Molasses 
Act  after  the  close  of  the  war  with  France  in  1763  dealt  a  hard  blow 
to  the  commerce  of  Rhode  Island,  which  had  been  the  chief  center  for 
the  distillation  of  rum  from  the  molasses  received  from  the  French 
islands,^°  and  with  the  considerable  decline  in  its  trade  which  followed 
went  a  lessening  of  the  exportation  of  horses  from  its  ports  and  a  partial 
diversion  of  the  trade  to  the  easily  accessible  outlet  at  New  London 
in  Connecticut,  where  such  shipments  had  for  some  time  been  well 
established. 


®  One  Newport  captain  in  1731.  quaintly  complains  to  his  owners  that  he  has  been 
unable  to  dispose  of  his  cargo  of  horses  at  Antigua  because  "  there  was  3  New  London 
men  arrived  before  I  landed.  They  sold  there  horses  for  tow  pistoles  a  head  which  is 
true."       (Massachusetts    Historical    Society,    Collections,    7th    ser..    vol.    9,    no.    69,    p.    16.) 

1°  The  former  prohibitive  duty  of  sixpence  a  gallon  was  reduced  in  1764  to  threepence  ; 
and  the  act  was  finally  repealed  in  1766  and  a  tax  of  only  one  penny  a  gallon  was 
imposed  instead.  But  between  the  war  and  these  duties,  Rhode  Island  commerce  suffered 
heavily. 


918  Deane  Phillips 

In  addition  to  those  shipped  from  New  London,  many  Connecticut 
horses  were  put  directly  aboard  ship  at  the  towns  on  the  Connecticut 
river,  especially  at  Windsor,  which  had  a  considerable  trade  with  the 
West  Indies  (139)  ;  and  after  the  middle  of  the  centur3^  considerable 
numbers  were  sent  out  from  New  Haven.  New  London,  however,  was 
the  chief  point  of  embarkation,  and  many  horses,  as  well  as  other  live- 
stock, were  driven  in  from  other  colonies  to  be  sent  from  there  to  the 
southern  market  (140).  All  the  Connecticut  vessels  were  supposed  to 
clear  at  this  port  (141),  and  some  of  the  river  vessels  undoubtedly 
took  on  board  their  cargoes  of  horses  there  (142),  although,  according 
to  Caulkins,  many  such  vessels  "  slipped  over  the  bar  uncounted  "  and 
sailed  directly  to  the  Indies  (143). 

This  commerce  of  the  Connecticut  coast  towns  was  well  known. 
James  Fenimore  Cooper,  in  one  of  his  tales  of  frontier  life  written  at 
a  date  (1832)  near  enough  to  the  heyday  of  this  trade  to  have  enabled 
him  to  get  direct  testimony  as  to  its  extent,  puts  the  following  in  the 
mouth  of  one  of  his  characters:  "  I  have  been  down  at  the  mouth  of 
both  Havens,  that  .  .  .  named  after  the  capital  of  Old  England, 
and  that  Avhich  is  called  Haven  with  the  addition  of  the  word  '  New,' 
and  have  seen  the  snows  and  brigantines  collecting  their  droves  like 
the  ark,  being  outward  bound  .  .  .  for  barter  and  traffic  in  four 
footed  animals  "   (144). 

The  Connecticut  vessels  were  mainly  sloops  and  schooners,  single- 
decked  and  without  topmasts;  and,  unlike  those  of  the  other  colonies, 
they  were  engaged  almost  entirely  in  the  West  Indies  trade,  making 
two  trips  a  year.  In  New  London,  however,  there  were  built  some 
larger  square-rigged  ships,  with  more  ample  deck  space  designed  to 
facilitate  the  transportation  of  large  cargoes  of  livestock.  These  "  horse 
jockeys,"  as  the}'  were  called,  have  already  been  mentioned;  one  of 
them  sailed  from  New  London  in  1716  bound  for  Barbados  with  forty- 
five  horses  on  board,  and  later  others  were  built  which  could  carry  even 
greater  numbers  (145).  In  1724  six  of  these  ships  left  port  together, 
all  freighted  with  similar  cargoes  (146),  and  in  1731  three  arrived  in 
Antigua  with  so  many  horses  as  to  completely  swamp  the  market  (147). 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  commerce  of  Connecticut  increased  very  rapidlj" 
during  this  period  and  continued  to  increase  until  the  beginning   of 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  919 

the  Revolutionary  War/^  and  from  all  the  evidence  available  it  is  clear 
that  the  export  trade  in  horses  played  no  inconsiderable  part  in  this 
growth.  Horses  continued  to  be  sent  out  from  Rhode  Island  and 
Massachusetts  ports,  but  it  was  in  Connecticut,  and  especially  in  New 
London,  that  the  trade  finally  came  to  be  mainly  centered  in  the  period 
just  before  the  Revolution. 

SOURCES   OF    SUPPLY    FOR   THE   EXPORT   TRADE 

Such  an  extensive  exportation  of  horses  from  the  Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island  ports  as  has  just  been  described  indicates  the  raising  of 
them  for  this  purpose  in  large  numbers  and  over  a  very  considerable 
area.  Details  concerning  such  horse  breeding,  however,  are  very  meager. 
Horses  were  probably  raised  to  some  extent  by  all  the  farmers  in  the 
region  in  response  to  the  steady  demand  that  existed.^-  The  various 
cases  of  horse  stealing  found  in  the  court  records,  as  already  described, 
as  well  as  the  presence  of  the  so-called  "  horse  coursers  "  who  went 
about  the  country  buying  up  animals  and  driving  them  in  herds  to  the 
points  of  shipment,  would  indicate  that  this  was  the  case   (148). 

Here  and  there  throughout  the  area,  however,  were  certain  favorably 
situated  districts  w^here  the  breeding  of  horses  and  of  other  animals  for 
export  was  much  more  specialized.  This  was  the  case,  for  example,  on 
Fisher's  Island,  just  off  the  mouth  of  the  Thames,  which  was  given 
over  almost  entirely  to  animal  husbandry  (149).  Also,  in  the  Con- 
necticut River  Valley  the  region  round  about  Windsor  seems  to  have 
been  another  such  center  (150).  But  by  far  the  most  extensive  and 
important  of  these  specialized  areas  was  to  be  found  in  the  Narragansett 
district  of  Rhode  Island  —  a  region  so  famed  in  the  annals  of  the  time 
for  its  great  flocks  of  sheep,  its  dairies  and  cattle,  and  above  all  its  fine 
horses,  as  to  have  been  noted  by  most  of  the  contemporary  writers  of 
the  period. 


"  Between  the  years  1762  and  1774  the  number  of  Connecticut  vessels  increased  from 
seventy-six,  with  a  total  burden  of  6790  tons,  to  one  hundred  and  eighty,  with  a  total 
tonnage  of  10,317.  (Connecticut  Archives.  Cp"sns.  p.  5.  Cited  by  Weeden,  Economic  and 
Social  History  of  New  England,  vol.    2,   p.   758.) 

12  The  inventory  of  John  Walworth,  of  New  London,  in  1748  shows  the  arrangement 
of  a  well-to-do  farmer's  estate  of  thnt  period.  He  ])ossessed  4  negro  servants.  77  ounces 
of  silver  plate,  50  head  of  cattle,  812  sheep,  and  32  horses,  mare.s,  and  colts  (Caulkins, 
History  of  Netv   London,   p.   345). 


920  Deane  Phillips 

the  narragansett  planters  and  their  horses 
Strictly  speaking,  the  Narragansett  country  embraced  all  the  lands 
occupied  by  the  Narraganset  Indians  at  the  coming  of  the  English; 
but  in  the  parlance  of  the  time  the  term  came  to  be  applied  to  a  part  of 
this  territory  consisting  of  a  strip  of  land  about  twenty  miles  long  and 
from  two  to  four  miles  wide.  This  extended  along  the  western  shore 
of  Narragansett  Bay,  from  Wiekford  on  the  north  to  Point  Judith  on 
the  south,  and  thence  westward  along  the  coast  to  include  the  Champlain 
tract  in  Charlestown.  It  was  on  this  fertile,  well-watered  plain  that 
there  was  developed  a  region  of  large  and  pretentious  estates  —  the 
homes  of  the  Narragansett  planters,  so  called  —  and  here  was  found  a 
type  of  agriculture  and  a  social  order  unlike  anything  to  be  found  else- 
where in  New  England. 

Channing,  who  has  had  access  to  the  local  town  records  of  the  area 
and  to  various  manuscripts  and  family  papers,  describes  these  Nar- 
ragansett planters  as  follows  (151)  : 

Unlike  the  other  New  England  aristocrats  of  their  time  these  people  derived 
their  wealth  from  the  soil  and  not  from  success  in  mercantile  adventures.  They 
formed  a  landed  aristocracy  whicli  had  all  the  peculiarities  of  a  landed  aristocracy 
to  as  great  an  extent  as  did  that  of  the  southern  colonies.  Nevertheless  these 
Narragansett  magnates  were  not  planters  in  the  usual  and  commonly  accepted 
meaning  of  the  word.  It  is  true  enough  that  they  lived  on  large  isolated  farms 
surrounded  by  all  the  pomp  and  apparent  prosperity  that  a  horde  of  slaves  could 
supply.  But  if  one  looks  beneath  the  surface,  he  will  find  that  the  routine  of 
their  daily  lives  was  entirely  unlike  that  of  the  Virginia  planters.  The  Narragan- 
sett's  wealth  was  derived  not  so  much  from  the  cultivation  of  any  great  staple 
like  cotton  or  tobacco,  as  from  the  product  of  their  dairies,  their  tlocks  of  sheep, 
and  their  droves  of  splendid  horses,  the  once  famous  Narragansett  pacers.  In  fine 
they  were  large  • —  large  for  the  place  and  epoch  —  stock  farmers  and  dairymen. 

This  region  was  from  the  outset  one  of  large-scale  agricultural  opera- 
tions. Roger  Williams  had  penetrated  the  area  some  time  before  1650, 
and  in  1641  Richard  Smith  had  bought  a  tract  of  30,000  acres  from 
the  Narraganset  sachems  and  had  erected  a  house  (152)  ;  but  the  real 
settlement  of  the  area  did  not  proceed  at  a  rapid  rate  until  after  the 
Pettiquamscut  Purchase  (153),  made  in  1657  by  John  Hull  (of  pine- 
tree  shilling  fame)  and  a  number  of  associates,  and  the  Atherton  Pur- 
chase (154),  made  two  years  later  by  a  company  headed  by  Sir 
Humphrey  Atherton  and  John  Winthrop,  of  Connecticut.  Both  these 
groups  of  owners  bent  their  efforts  to  obtaining  settlers  for  their  hold- 
ings.    Evidently,  because  of  the  many  natural  advantages  of  the  sec- 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  921 

tioii,  they  had  little  difficulty  in  achieving  this  result,  for  in  1670  a 
letter  from  Major  Mason  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  Colony  of  Con- 
necticut stated  that  the  land  was  at  that  time  mainly  taken  up  with 
farms,  some  of  Avhich  were  five,  six,  and  even  ten  miles  square  (155). 
John  Hull's  plan  in  1677  for  horse  breeding  on  a  large  scale  to  get 
"  large  and  fair  horses  and  mares  "  for  the  AVest  Indies  trade  is  noted 
elsewhere  and  is  another  evidence  of  these  large-scale  operations.  Hull's 
scheme  was  a  rather  ambitious  one.  He  planned  to  build  a  stone  wall 
across  Point  Judith  Neck,  which  would  have  inclosed  a  peninsula 
approximately  five  miles  long  and  having  an  average  width  of  about  a 
mile.  The  object  of  the  wall  was  to  keep  out  mongrels  and  strays  so 
that  the  planters  would  thus  be  able  to  breed  up  a  stock  of  horses  of 
superior  characteristics  for  shipment  to  the  Indies.  Hull  goes  even 
further  and  suggests  to  his  partners,  ' '  We  might  have  a  vessel  made  for 
that  service,  accommodated  on  purpose  to  carry  off  horses  to 
advantage  "   (156). 

The  wealth  of  the  district  increased  steadily  up  to  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  and  full  use  was  made  of  the  opportunities  for  animal  hus- 
bandry of  an  extensive  sort.  In  1755  Douglass  notes  that  for  New  Eng- 
land, "  the  most  considerable  farms  are  in  the  Narragansett  country," 
and  that  the  largest  of  these  ''  milks  110  cows,  cuts  about  200  load  of 
hay,  makes  about  13,000  weight  of  cheese  besides  butter,  and  sells  off 
considerably  of  calves,  fatted  bullocks,  and  horses"  (157).  In  1747 
South  Kingston,  the  center  of  the  Narragansett  region,  was  assessed 
for  the  public  colony  rate  a  sum  only  a  little  less  than  that  for  Provi- 
dence and  about  half  that  for  Newport  (158)  ;  in  1780  it  had  become 
by  far  the  richest  town  in  Rhode  Island,  paying  double  the  sum 
assigned  to  Newport  and  two-thirds  more  than  Providence  (159).  Most 
of  this  wealth  was  apparently  derived  from  agricultural  operations. 

Their  cattle  and  the  output  of  their  dairies  were  an  important  source 
of  revenue  to  the  Narragansett  planters.  But  by  far  the  most  noted 
product  of  the  region  —  at  least  toward  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  —  was  a  breed  of  saddle  horses  which  they  developed. ^^    These 


"  The  preference  for  pacers  appeared  at  an  early  date  and  obviously  is  the  cause 
of  the  development  of  the  Narrag-ansetts  themselves  through  selection  and  breeding. 
Thus  Waite  Winthrop  writes  from  Boston  in  1684  concerning  some  horses  consigned  to 
him  for  sale :  "  I  am  offered  £30  but  if  the  two  paced  well  they  would  bring  nearer 
£50,  for  such  is  difference  from  ordinary  jades  if  they  do  but  pace  well."  (Winthrop 
Papers;   Massachusetts   Historical  Society,  Collections,   5th   ser.,  vol.   3,  p.   446.) 


922  Deane  Phillips 

were  the  famous  Narragansett  pacers,  whose  praises  were  sung  by  all 
the  contemporary  writers  of  the  period  and  tales  of  whose  remarkable 
performances  still  linger  as  part  of  our  American  horse  lore. 

The  best  description  of  these  unusual  pacing  horses  is  given  in  an 
article  on  American  agriculture  in  the  first  American  edition  of  the 
Edinburgh  Encyclopedia  (160),  written  about  1830  by  Robert  Living- 
ston.    The  description  reads  as  follows : 

They  have  handsome  foreheads,  the  head  clean,  the  neck  long,  the  arms  and  legs 
thin  and  taper;  the  hindquarters  are  narrow  and  the  hocks  a  little  crooked,  which 
is  here  called  sickle  hocked,  which  turns  the  hind  feet  out  a  little:  their  color  is 
generally,  though  not  always,  bright  sorrel ;  they  are  very  spirited  and  carry  both 
head  and  tail  high.  But  what  is  most  remarkable  is  that  they  amble  with  more 
speed  than  most  horses  trot,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  put  some  of  them  upon  a 
gallop.  Notwithstanding  this  facility  of  ambling,  where  the  ground  requires  it, 
as  when  the  roads  are  rough  and  stony,  they  have  a  fine  easy  single  footed  trot. 
These  circumstances,  together  with  their  being  very  sure  footed,  render  them  the 
finest  saddle  horses  in  the  world;  they  neither  fatigue  themselves  nor  their  rider. 
It  is  generally  to  be  lamented  that  this  invaluable  breed  of  horses  is  now  almost 
lost  by  being  mixed  with  those  imported  from  England  and  from  other  parts  of 
the  United  States. 

The  sturdy  qualities  of  the  Narragansett  pacers  have  been  perpetuated 
also  by  James  Fenimore  Cooper  in  his  tales  of  the  American  wilder- 
ness. The  horses  were  evidently  still  obtainable  in  Cooper's  day  (161) 
and  he  must  have  been  an  admirer  of  the  breed,  for  he  brings  them 
into  his  stories  frequently.  The}^  are  described  by  Cooper  as  being  small, 
sorrel  in  color,  and  distinguished  by  their  easy  pacing  gait  and  great 
endurance. 

As  to  the  origin  of  these  pacers  —  the  first  distinctly  American  breed 
of  horses  —  there  have  been  many  stories  current  at  one  time  or  another, 
most  of  which  tales  are  obviously  fanciful.  One  of  the  most  plausible 
accounts  is  a  tradition  handed  down  in  the  Hazard  family,  of  Rhode 
Island,  the  early  members  of  which  were  among  the  more  important 
breeders  of  the  animals.  According  to  this  story  the  progenitor  of  the 
breed  was  imported  from  Andalusia,  in  Spain,  by  Deputy  Governor 
Robinson   (162),  whose  estate  the  Hazards  inherited. 

Wallace  (163),  a  modern  writer  who  has  given  some  attention  to 
the  various  stories  regarding  the  origin  of  the  Narragansetts,  contends 
that  they  resulted  solely  from  careful  selection  and  breeding  of  the 
common  New  England  stock.     He  refuses  to  give  credence  to  the  story 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  923 

of  an  admixture  of  Spanish  blood,  first,  ''  because  there  were  no  pacers 
in  Andalusia  or  any  other  part  of  Spain,"  and  secondly,  because  "  the 
Narraoransetts  were  a  leading  article  of  export  from  Rhode  Island  in 
1680,  thirteen  years  before  Governor  Robinson  was  born."  Both  these 
objections  made  by  Wallace  are  of  doubtful  validity,  however.  There 
is  available  no  such  complete  information  regarding  the  horses  in  Spain 
during  the  period  in  question  as  to  justify  any  such  sweeping  assertion 
as' to  the  entire  absence  of  pacers.  And,  although  it  is  true  that  horses 
were  reported  by  Governor  Sanford  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  in  London  in 
1680  as  an  important  article  of  export  from  Rhode  Island,  there  is 
nothing  to  indicate  that  these  horses  were  of  the  Narragansett  breed.  The 
presumption  is  that  they  were  not,  for  the  Narragansett  district  proper 
was  not  really  settled  until  about  that  date.  Furthermore,  Captain 
John  Hull  in  1677  looked  on  his  plan  (noted  on  page  905  for  breed- 
ing a  race  of  ''  large  and  fair  horses  and  mares  "  as  a  new  venture  for 
the  region.  In  short,  the  horses  mentioned  by  Governor  Sanford  were 
in  all  probability  raised  in  the  northern  and  eastern  parts  of  Rhode 
Island,  where  the  country  was  already  in  farms  before  the  Narragansett 
district  was  settled. 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  tradition  concerning  the  importa- 
tion of  Spanish  stock  by  Deputy  Governor  Robinson  deserves  some 
credence.  Whether  or  not  there  were  any  pacers  in  Spain  at  the  time 
is  immaterial,  for  it  is  shown  by  the  correspondence  of  Governor  Win- 
throp  and  other  writers  that  pacers  were  not  uncommon  in  New  Eng- 
land as  early,  at  least,  as  1684  (164),  and  the  pacing  gait  of  the  Nar- 
ragansetts  may  very  easily  be  accounted  for  on  the  basis  of  selection 
and  breeding  of  this  native  stock.  Such  selection  may  have  gone  on 
for  a  greater  or  less  period  before  the  importation  of  a  stallion  from 
Spain  to  still  further  improve  the  breed.  Such  importation,  in  fact,  is 
just  what  might  have  been  expected  to  happen  as  attention  was  increas- 
ingly directed  to  developing  an  improved  strain. 

The  pacing  gait  was  one  of  the  most  characteristic  points  of  the 
Narragansetts.  It  is  said  that  the  pure-bloods  could  not  trot  at  all. 
The  gait  itself  is  described  as  being  peculiar  in  that  the  backbone  of 
the  horse  moved  through  the  air  in  a  straight  line,  thus  differing  from 


924  Deane  Phillips 

that  of  the  common  "  racker,"  or  pacer  of  the  present  day,  and  from 
horses  having  an  acquired  pacing  gait  (165).  A  breed  in  which  the 
pacing  habit  was  so  firmly  established  must  have  had  back  of  it  an 
ancestry  in  which  such  movement  had  long  been  the  usual  gait.  As 
already  indicated  (page  894),  such  a  breed  is  to  be  found  in  the  Irish 
hobbies,  which  were  so  greatly  sought  after  as  saddle  horses  in  England 
during  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  mainly  because  their 
pacing  gait  was  easier  than  that  of  any  other  horses  of  the  period. 
Such  fragmentary  descriptions  of  these  hobbies  as  are  available  (166) 
disclose  a  striking  similarity  in  appearance  to  the  Narragansett  pacers. 
These  Irish  ponies  were  small,  spirited,  possessed  of  unusual  endurance, 
and  commonly  sorrel  in  color  —  all  of  which  characteristics  are  simi- 
larly to  be  found  in  the  Narragansetts.  Although  no  direct  proof  can 
be  adduced  in  support  of  such  a  view,-  it  would  seem  to  be  at  least  a 
plausible  theory  that  the  Narragansett  pacers  resulted  from  the  selec- 
tion and  breeding  of  some  of  these  Irish  hobbies  which  had  been  brought 
to  New  England  at  an  early  date.  Later,  as  indicated  by  the  tradition 
in  the  Hazard  family,  these  may  have  been  crossed  with  some  imported 
Spanish  stock  to  build  up  the  breed  still  further. 

As  to  the  speed  and  stamina  of  the  Narragansetts  and  the  unusual 
ease  of  their  gait  for  saddle  purposes,  there  is  much  evidence.  Pacing 
races  were  often  held  at  Little-Neck  Beach  at  South  Kingston,  and 
some  of  the  silver  tankards  won  at  these  races  are  said  by  LTpdike,  writ- 
ing in  1847,  to  haA'e  been  still  in  the  possession  of  some  of  the  old  Nar- 
ragansett famxilies  at  that  time  (167).  The  Eeverend  James  Mac- 
Sparran,  sent  out  to  Rhode  Island  in  1721.  by  the  Society  for  the  Propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  and  for  many  years  a  resident 
in  the  colony,  records  that  he  has  seen  some  of  these  horses  pace  a 
mile  ''  in  a  little  more  than  two  minutes  and  a  good  deal  less  than 
three,"  and  adds  further  that  he  has  often  ridden  them  '^  fifty;  nay, 
sixty  miles  in  a  day  even  here  in  New  England  where  roads  are  rough, 
stony  and  uneven  "  (168).  Another  contemporary  writer  describes 
' '  the  natural  pacers  of  horses  which  at  a  cow  run  —  a  gait  which  they 
acquire  by  pasturing  when  colts  Avith  the  cows  [truly  a  surprising 
theory !  ]  —  Avill  pace  three  miles  in  seven  minutes. ' ' 

Further    evidence    of   the   unusual    ease    of   the    saddle    gait    of   the 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  925 

Narragansetts  is  g-iven  in  a  letter  written  about  1847  and  quoted  by 
Updike  (169)  in  his  History  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Narragansett. 
This  describes  how  in  1791  an  aged  lady  then  living  in  Narragansett 
rode  one  of  these  pacers  on  a  lady's  side-saddle  to  Plainfield,  a  dis- 
tance of  thirty  miles,  rode  the  next  day  to  Hartford,  forty  miles,  staid 
in  Hartford  for  two  days,  then  rode  forty  miles  to  New  Haven,  then 
forty  miles  to  New  London,  and  then  home  to  Narragansett,  forty 
miles  more.     The  lady  claimed  to  have  experienced  no  sensible  fatigue. 

Because  of  the  export  trade  with  the  West  Indies,  horses  of  any 
sort  would  have  been  a  valuable  source  of  revenue  to  the  Narragansett 
planters,^^  and  it  is  probable  that  many  of  the  ordinary  New  England 
stock  were  bred  for  this  purpose  in  the  region.  But  the  cream  of  the 
demand  from  the  sugar  planters  was  for  saddle  horses  for  personal 
use,  and  for  these  they  were  willing  and  able  to  pay  extravagant  prices. 
To  this  demand  was  added  that  of  persons  of  means  throughout  all  New 
England  and  the  other  continental  British  colonies  as  well.^^  Thus, 
in  these  unusual  pacers,  whose  gait  and  general  characteristics  suited 
them  so  admirably  to  such  use,  it  is  clear  that  the  Narragansett  dis- 
trict had  a  very  important  source  of  revenue  and  one  which  probably 
contributed  in  no  small  measure  to  its  prosperity. 

The  horses  and  other  livestock  of  the  Narragansett  district  designed 
for  exportation  to  the  West  Indies  found  an  outlet  through  the  various 
ports  on  Narragansett  Bay,  or  were  driven  to  New  London  or  Stonington 
over  the  old  Pequot  trail,  which  had  become  the  post  road  between 
Boston  and  New  York  and  Avhich  passed  through  the  center  of  the 
region.  Apparently  many  animals  were  shipped  also  directly  from  the 
Narragansett  country  itself;   Robert   Hazard,   for   example,   is  said  to 


"  P>om  the  account  book  kept  by  Thomas  Hazard,  one  of  the  wealthiest  and  most 
prominent  of  the  Narragansett  planters,  may  be  gleaned  some  idea  of  the  prices  received. 
In  175S  he  sold  a  three-year-old  at  £150,  and  the  next  year  a  thirteen-year-old  bay 
"  with  a  white  nose  "  brought  £70  ;  while  in  1755  a  "  black  troting  mare  "  brought 
only  £55.  In  1763  a  black  mare  sold  for  £244,  but  by  that  time  the  Rhode  Island 
currency  had  greatly  depreciated  in  value  and  Mr.  Hazard  noted  alongside  that  £7=1 
Spanish  Milled  Dollar."  In  1766.  however,  one  "  dark  colored  natural  pacing  horse  Avith 
some  white  on  his  face  "  brought  the  high  price  '  of  fifty-five  Spanish  milled  dollars. 
(Hazard.  TJiomas  Hazard.  S!nn  of  Roht.,  caU'd  Cnllrrfc  Tom,,  p.    fi."^.) 

^^  Watson  (Annals  of  PhUadclphia  and  Pennsylvania,  p.  209)  gives  an  account  of 
one  such  shipment  in  1711,  as  recorded  in  a  letter  written  by  a  certain  Rip  van  Dam 
who  had  engineered  the  transaction  on  behalf  of  Jonathan  Dickinson,  of  Philadelphia. 
The  horse  was  shipped  from  Rhode  Island  in  a  sloop,  from  which  he  jumped  overboard 
and  swam  ashore  to  his  former  home.  Recaptured,  he  finally  arrived  in  New  York, 
"  after  fourteen  days  passage  much  reduced  in  flesh  and  spirit."  He  cost  £30  plus 
50  shillings  for  freight,  and  was  evidently  an  animal  of  spirit;  he  "  would  not  stand 
still  but  plays  about  all  the  time  ;  "  he  would  "  drink  a  glass  of  wine  or  beer  or  cider," 
and  Rip  van  Dam  further  opines  that  "  he  would  drink  a  dram  on  a  good  cold  morning," 


926  Deane  Phillips 

have  raised  about  two  hundred  horses  annually  and  to  have  loaded  two 
vessels  a  year  with  them  and  other  produce  of  his  farm.  These  vessels 
sailed  '^  from  the  South  Ferry  directly  to  the  Indies  where  the  horses 
were  in  great  demand"  (170).  It  was  the  Hazard  f  amily  ^^  which 
seemed  to  have  been  mainly  concerned  in  the  early  development  of 
the  Narrag'ensett  pacers,  and  it  is  probable  that  many  of  the  horses  thus 
shipped  were  of  the  famous  breed. 

To  recapitulate,  then,  it  may  be  said  that  during  this  period  from 
1700  to  1775,  in  response  to  the  demand  from  the  West  Indies  sugar 
plantations  for  draft  animals  and  from  the  same  source  and  from  all 
the  continental  colonies  for  saddle  purposes,  the  breeding  of  horses 
finally  became,  in  the  period  just  preceding  the  Revolution,  a  wide- 
spread industry  throughout  all  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  —  and 
probably  in  the  other  New  England  colonies  as  well  —  and  that  in 
some  particularly  favored  spots  it  was  carried  on  in  a  highly  special- 
ized and  extensive  fashion.  The  ''  horse  jockeys  "  with  their  large 
cargoes,  the  numberless  small  vessels  carrying  only  a  few  animals  on 
their  scanty  decks,  the  famous  pacers  driven  overland  to  neighboring 
continental  colonies,  all  must  have  contributed  a  very  considerable  item 
of  revenue  to  the  New  England  region  and  aided  the  colonists  in  that 
search  for  '^  a  good  return  "  on  which  they  were  always  bent. 

DECLINE  IN  HORiSE  RAISING  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

The  exportation  of  horses,  which  was  interrupted  during  the  Revolu- 
tion as  was  the  other  commerce  of  the  colonies,  was  revived  at  the  close 
of  the  war.  Now,  however,  the  New  England  vessels  were  denied 
entrance  to  the  British  sugar  islands  by  the  decree  restricting  trade 
to  British  bottoms,  so  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  former 
outlet  for  horses  no  longer  existed.  Such  shipments  as  were  made 
went  mainly  to  the  French  islands  and  to  Cuba,  which  b}^  that  time 
had  been  throAvn  open  to  trade  by  the  Spaniards  and  was  developing 
rapidly  as  a  producer  of  sugar. 

This  revival  of  the  horse  trade  seems  to  have  had  its  main  focus  in 
New  London.  The  "  horse  jockeys  "  were  once  more  embarked  on  their 
former  service;  one  brig  took  out  forty-nine  horses,  and  many  sloops 


^«  The    Robert    Hazard    mentioned    above   was    born    in    1G89    and    died    in    17G2. 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England 


927 


carried  as  many  as  thirty-five  in  a  single  cargo.  The  Enterprise,  bound 
for  Demerara,  carried  provisions,  brick,  lumber,  twenty  horses,  seventeen 
neat  cattle,  and  seventeen  mules,  besides  swine,  geese,  and  turkeys  (171). 
The  general  extent  of  these  shipments  is  shown  in  a  marine  list  kept  by 
Thomas  Alden  in  the  New  London  Gazette.  According  to  this  record 
there  was  sent  out  from  Ncav  London  during  the  year  1785  a  total  of  8094 
horses  and  cattle ;  and  in  the  years  following,  the  numbers  were,  suc- 
cessively, 6671,  6366,  and  6678  —  the  record  ceasing  with  the  year 
1788  (172). 

This  revival  of  horse  exporting  apparently  was  not  especially  suc- 
cessful and  did  not  continue  long,^'  for  the  New  London  vessel  owners 
were  soon  casting  about  for  some  better  occupation  for  their  ships.  On 
the  return  of  two  of  these  ships  from  an  expedition  to  the  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence  with  profitable  cargoes  of  whale  oil,  the  New  London  Gazette 
exhorts,  in  rather  mixed  metaphor,  ''  Now  my  horse  jockeys,  beat  your 
horses  and  cattle  into  spears,  lances,  harpoons  and  whaling  gear,  and 
let  us  strike  out  "   (173). 

The  reopening  of  the  British  West  Indies  ports  to  New  England 
vessels  in  1789  (174)  apparently  failed  to  halt  the  decline  that  had 
begun  in  the  New  England  horse  trade,  if  one  is  to  judge  by  the  infre- 
quency  with  which  this  trade  is  now  mentioned.  It  is  probable  that 
in  the  general  interruption  of  the  trade  during  the  Revolution,  the 
sugar  islands,  thrown  on  their  own  resources,  had  learned  to  furnish 
their  own  supply  (175).  As  already  indicated,  the  larger  islands  of 
Jamaica  and  Haiti  were  plentifully  supplied  with  pasturage  and  wild 
horses,  by  means  of  which  this  could  be  accomplished.  Nor  was  Cuba 
as  promising  a  market  as  might  have  been  expected,  for  it  possessed 
similar  advantages.  In  addition,  the  substitution  of  water  power  for 
the  mills  probably  continued  to  take  place  in  all  the  islands  where  it 
was  possible.  Lastly,  there  are  indications  that  the  pasturage  avail- 
able in  New  England  itself  was  not  so  ample  as  formerly  and  was  being 

"  An  Indication  of  the  general  decline  in  the  exportation  of  horses  which  occurred 
after  the  Revolution  is  found  in  the  following  table  reproduced  from  Pitkin  (A  Statistical 
Virir  of  tJie  Coinmrrce  of  fit"   ('nitcd  States  of  Amrrlca,  p.   62—63).     These  figures  include 


shipments  from  other  p 

)rts  besi 

des   those  in  New 

Knglan 

d. 

Year 

1791 

1792 

1793 

1794 

1795 

1796 

1797 

1798 

Number  of  horses  exported 
from  the  United  States.  . 

6,975 

5,656 

3,728 

3,495 

2,626 

4,':83 

1,177 

2,132 

928  Deane  Phillips 

gradually  infringed  on  by  the  cultivation  of  new  land;  in  fact,  accord- 
ing to  Elliot  (176)  this  scarcity  of  pasture  land  and  meadows,  with  the 
resultant  high  price  of  hay,  had  begun  to  be  felt  even  before  the  Revolu- 
tion. All  these  things  combined  to  make  difficult  the  resumption  of 
the  trade  in  horses  on  its  former  scale. 

Just  what  became  of  the  large  number  of  animals  which  had  for  so 
long  furnished  a  steady  article  of  commerce  is  not  very  clear.  The 
very  considerable  shipments  to  the  French  islands,  already  noted,  which 
immediately  followed  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  probably  accounted 
for  such  surplus  of  the  ordinary  stock  as  had  accumulated;  while  the 
demand  for  saddle  horses  on  the  part  of  the  increasingly  prosperous 
Spanish  planters  of  Cuba  probably  took  many  of  the  Narragansett 
pacers  (177).  Then,  too,  the  mere  cessation  of  breeding  new  colts,  as 
the  demand  for  export  purposes  lessened,  would  have  had  an  immediate 
effect  on  the  numbers.  But  most  important  of  all,  doubtless,  was  the 
breaking  up  of  former  pastures  for  the  purpose  of  cultivating  field  crops 
to  supply  the  demand  of  Europe  for  provisions  during  the  war  between 
France  and  England  which  began  in  1793  and  which  soon  forced  prices 
for  such  supplies  to  a  high  level.  The  effect  of  such  a  change  in  agri- 
culture would  be,  on  the  one  hand,  to  cut  down  the  number  of  horses 
that  could  be  cheaply  raised,  and,  on  the  other,  to  give  ample  oppor- 
tunity for  the  employment  in  the  new  operations  of  the  horses  already 
available.  Finally,  as  the  people  from  New  England  pushed  westward 
to  the  settlement  of  newer  lands  in  New  York  and  elsewhere,  they  also 
probably  drew  off  considerable  numbers  from  the  existing  supply. 

Another  event  indicating  the  changed  conditions  in  horse  raising  as 
a  New  England  industry  during  this  period  following  the  Revolution, 
was  the  disappearance  of  the  Narragansett  pacers.  This  breed,  so  care- 
fully developed  and  so  noted  in  the  annals  of  the  time,  at  length  became 
extinct  and  is  known  at  present  onl}^  as  a  sort  of  legendary  strain 
whose  connection  with  other  American  breeds,  if  any  connection  exists, 
is  mainly  a  matter  of  conjecture. 

The  demand  for  the  Narragansetts  from  the  wealthy  planters  of  Cuba, 
when  that  island  at  length  began  to  cultivate  sugar  extensively,  has 
been  assigned  by  one  writer  (I.  P.  Hazard)  as  the  chief  cause  for  the 
disappearance  of  the  breed.  He  says  in  part:  '*  The  planters  became 
suddenlj^  rich  and  wanted  pacing  horses     ...     to  ride,  faster  than 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  929 

we  could  supply  them,  and  sent  an  agent  to  this  country  to  purchase 
them  on  such  terms  as  he  could  .  .  .  He  commenced  buying  and 
shipping  till  all  the  good  ones  were  sent  off  "  (178). 

It  is  easy  to  understand  that  such  a  large  and  unexpected  demand 
from  Cuba,  without  restriction  as  to  price,  might  deplete 
the  breed  very  seriously.  But  if  the  Narragansett  planters  did  thus 
actually  kill  the  goose  that  laid  the  golden  eggs  by  shipping  off  all 
their  breeding  stock,  it  must  be  that  there  were  other  factors  at  work 
which  made  them  willing  to  sell.  It  might  indicate,  for  example,  that 
their  experience  in  attempting  to  sell  in  their  former  markets  after 
the  war,  had  convinced  them  that  the  end  of  the  earlier  export  trade  was 
in  sight. 

There  are,  however,  other  obvious  reasons  which  probably  contributed 
to  the  dispersal  of  the  sturdy  little  pacers  which  had  so  long  been  a 
profitable  commodity.  They  were  not  beautiful  at  best ;  they  were  small, 
scarcely  more  than  fourteen  hands  high,  and  their  gait,  while  desirable 
for  saddle  purposes,  did  not  fit  them  for  driving  to  advantage  in  team 
or  harness  (179).  All  these  things  undoubtedly  worked  against  the 
Narragansetts  as  the  roads  in  the  colonies  became  better,  wheeled 
vehicles  came  into  use,  and  there  was  need  for  larger  and  heavier  animals 
for  harness  and  draft.  The  pacers  were,  in  short,  of  most  value  under 
frontier  conditions,  and  as  the  region  along  the  coast  became  more 
settled  there  is  evidence  that  they  were  actually  dispersed  to  remoter 
regions,  especially  to  Canada,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee.  It  is  in  these 
places  that  the  pacing  blood  seems  to  have  been  preserved  in  the  midst 
of  the  influx  of  Englih^h'  thoroughbred  stock  beginning  about  1750 
(180). 

Thus  closed  the  final  chapter  in  New  England's  leadership  in  the 
exportation  of  at  least  one  product  of  an  agricultural  nature  —  a  leader- 
ship w^hich  had  been  held  undisputed  for  more  than  a  century ;  which  in 
Ihe  lean  years  of  her  early  commerce  had  eked  out  to  good  purpose 
the  exchanges  of  New  England  with  the  West  Indies  and  by  which  she 
was  enabled  in  turn  to  purchase  English  goods;  which  had  aided  in 
the  opening  and  settlement  of  her  lands  remote  from  the  coasts  and 
harbors;  and  which  finally  had  a  part  in  the  development  in  the  Narra- 
gansett district  of  a  social  and  economic  organization  based  on  agri- 
culture, which  was  comparable  to  any  other  found  in  continental 
America  during  the  colonial  period. 


930  Deane  Phillips 

CITATIONS 
( The  sources  of  information  cited  briefly  below  are  given  in  full  on  pages  936  to  941 ) 

1.  Higginson,  New  England's  Plantation  (Force,  Tracts,  vol.  1,  no.  2, 

p.  6). 

2.  Graves,  Letter  from  New  England  (Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc,  Col- 

lections, 1st  ser.,  vol.  1,  p.  124). 

3.  Josselyn,  Voyages  to  New  England  (Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc,  Col- 

lections, 3d  ser.,  vol.  3,  p.  240-241). 

4.  Elliot,  Essays  upon  Field  Husbandry,  3d,  p.  57. 

5.  Douglass,   Summary,  vol.  2,  p.  209. 

6.  An  account  of  the  difficulties  of  one  such  journey,  made  in  1632, 

is  given  by  Winthrop,  History  of  New  England,  vol.  1,  p.  91-93. 

7.  Johnson,  Wonder-working    Providence,   book    3,    ch.    1    (Jameson, 

Original   Narratives,   p.   234). 

8.  Plymouth  Col.  Records,  vol.  10,  p.  158. 

9.  Massachusetts  Col.  Records,  vol.  3,  p.  398. 

10.  Connecticut   Col.  Records,  vol.  1,  p.  284. 

11.  Plymouth  Col.  Records,  vol.  4,  p.  93. 

12.  Massachusetts  Col.  Records,  vol.  2,  p.  195. 

13.  Pynchon,  Diary,  p.  126. 

14.  Updike,  The  Narragansett  Church,  p.  514. 

15.  Josselyn,  Voyages  to  New  England  (Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc,  Col- 

lections, 3d  ser.,  vol.  3,  p.  338). 

16.  Bradford,  Letter  Book  (Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc,  Collections,  1st 

ser.,  vol,  3,  p.  35). 

17.  Winthrop,  New  England,  vol.  1,  p.  91-92. 

18.  Smith,  New  Englands  Trials  (Force,  Tracts,  vol.  2,  no.  2,  p.  17). 

19.  Bradford,  Plymouth  Plantation,  p.  302. 

20.  Oldmixon,  British  Empire  in  America,  vol.  1,  p.  58. 

21.  Massachusetts  Col.  Records,  vol.  1,  p.  36,  54,  403.    Wallace  {The 

Horse  of  America,  p.  128)  states  that  twenty  of  this  first  importa- 
tion were  mares  and  stallions,  but  he  does  not  give  the  source  of 
his  information. 

22.  Winthrop,  New  England,  vol.  1,  appendix,  p.  368. 

23.  Same  reference,  vol.  1,  p.  29. 

24.  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Col.  Ser.,  1574-1660,  p.  141. 

25.  Winthrop,  New  England,  vol.  1,  p.  111. 

26.  Same  reference,  vol.  1,  p.  104. 

27.  Same  reference,  vol.  1,  p.  161. 

28.  Same  reference,  vol.  1,  p.  133. 

29.  Same  reference,  vol.  1,  p.  134. 

30.  Prothero,  English  Farming,  p.  183. 

31.  Massachusetts  Col.  Records,  vol.  1,  p.  403. 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  931 

32.  Prothero,  English  Farming,  p.   36,   183. 

33.  Wallace,  The  Horse  of  America,  p.  128. 

34.  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Ireland,  1633-1647,  p.  38. 

35.  Prothero,   English  Farmino-,   p.   137.     Calendar  of   State  Papers, 

Ireland,  1625-1632,  p.  536. 

36.  Winthrop,  Letters  (Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc,  Collections,  4th  ser., 

vol.  6,  p.  149). 

37.  Massachusetts  Col.  Records,  vol.  1,  p.  221. 

38.  Same  reference,  vol.  2,  p.  14. 

39.  Same  reference,  vol.  4,  part  2,  p.  367,  552. 

40.  Plymouth  Col.  Records,  vol.  11,  p.  225. 

41.  Connecticut  Col.  Records,  vol.  2,  p.  244. 

42.  Massachusetts  Col.  Records,  vol.  2,  p.  225. 

43.  New  Haven  Col.  Records,  vol.  2,  p.  590. 

44.  Connecticut   Col.   Records,  vol.   2,   p.   28. 

45.  Rhode  Island  Col.  Records,  vol.  1,  p.  150. 

46.  Arnold,  History  of  Rhode  Island,  vol.  1,  p.  486. 

47.  Plymouth  Col.  Records,  vol.  3,  p.  222. 

48.  Winthrop,  New  England,  vol.  1,  p.  116. 

49.  Same  reference,  vol.  1,  p.  161. 

50.  Bradford,  Plymouth  Plantation,  p.  366. 

51.  Winthrop,  New  England,  vol.  2,  p.  18,  21. 

52.  AVinthrop,  Letters  (Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc,  Collections,  4th  ser., 

vol.  6,  p.  149). 

53.  Massachusetts  Col.  Records,  vol.  3,  p.  298. 

54.  Connecticut  Col.  Records,  vol.  2,  p.  61. 

55.  Massachusetts  Col.  Records,  vol.  4,  part  2,  p.  367. 

56.  Same  reference,  vol.  5,  p.  138. 

57.  Same  reference,  vol.  2,  p.  190. 

58.  Maverick,  Discription  of  New  England  (Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc, 

Proc,  2d  ser.,  vol.  1,  p.  247). 

59.  Winthrop,  Papers  (Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc,  Collections,  5th  ser., 

vol.  8,  p.  65). 

60.  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Col.  Ser.,  1669-1674,  p.  232. 

61.  Same  reference,  1675-1676,  addenda,  p.  213. 

62.  Winthrop,  New  England,  vol.  2,  p.  72. 

63.  New  York  Does.  Relative  to  Col.  Hist.,  vol.  1,  p.  362. 

64.  Description  of  Virginia  (Force,  Tracts,  vol.  3,  no.  8,  p.  1).    Bruce, 

Economic  History  of  Virginia,  vol.  1,  p.  298. 

65.  New  York  Docs.  Relative  to  Col.  Hist.,  vol.   1,  p.  385,  455,  503. 

66.  Plantagenet,  Description  of  New  Albion    (Force,   Tracts,  vol.   2, 

no.  7,  p.  5). 

67.  Campbell,  Considerations  on  Sugar  Trade,  p.  6.    Anderson,  Origin 

of  Commerce,  vol.  2,  p.  28,  331. 


932  Deane  Phillips 

68.  Oldmixon,  British  Empire  in  America,  vol.  2,  p.  2-4.     Anderson, 

Origin  of  Commerce,  vol.  2,  p.  28,  72,  331.  Campbell,  Considera- 
tions on  Sugar  Trade,  p.  6-8. 

69.  Savary  Desbrulons,  Dictionary  of  Trade  and  Commerce,  vol.  2, 

p.  766-767. 

70.  Anderson,  Origin  of  Commerce,  vol.  2,  p.  72,  146. 

71.  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Col.  Ser.,  1574-1660,  p.  451. 

72.  Same  reference,  p.  329,  379,  382,  385,  390,  392,  393,  395,  401,  402, 

404,  409,  411,  417,  420-426,  428,  431,  432,  436,  438,  451,  452,  461. 

73.  Same  reference,  1661-1668,  p.  441,  par.  1382. 

74.  Same  reference,  1574-1660,  p.  414. 

75.  Winthrop,  New  England,  vol.  2,  p.  312. 

76.  Same  reference,  vol.  2,  p.  327. 

77.  Wallace,  The  Horse  of  America,  p.  130. 

78.  Plantagenet,   Description  of  New  Albion    (Force,   Tracts,  vol.   2, 

no.  7,  p.  5). 

79.  Massachusetts  Col.  Records,  vol.  3,  p.  168. 

80.  New  Haven  Col.  Records,  vol.  2,  p.  3. 

81.  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Col.  Ser.,  1661-1668,  p.  346. 

82.  Same  reference,  1669-1674,  p.  475,  par.  1059. 

83.  Same  reference,  1675-1676,  p.  221. 

84.  Same  reference,  1677-1680,  p.  577. 

85.  Winthrop  Papers  (Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc,  Collections,  5th  ser., 

vol.  8,  p.  386,  432,  445,  495,  532). 

86.  Some    contemporary    opinions    regarding    the    special    advantages 

of  these  regions  are  to  be  found  in  the  following  references: 
Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Col.  Ser.,  1661-1668,  p.  343;  same 
reference,  1675-1676,  p.  221;  Description  of  Rhode  Island  by 
Daniel  Neal  (cited  by  Field,  State  of  Rhode  Island  at  the  End 
of  the  Centurv,  p.  565). 

87.  Rhode  Island  Col.  Records,  vol.  1,  p.  337. 

88.  Hull,  Diaries  (Amer.  Antiquarian  Soc,  Collections,  vol.  3,  p.  127). 

89.  Same  reference. 

90.  Quoted   from   original   in   British   State   Papers   Office,   N.    Eng. 

Papers,  B.  T.,  vol.  3,  no.  121,  by  Arnold,  History  of  Rhode  Island, 
vol.  1,  p.  488.  (The  copy  given  in  Calendar  of  State  Papers, 
Col.  Ser.,  1677-1680,  p.  524,  is  apparentlv  incomplete.) 

91.  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Col.  Ser.,  1677-1680,  p.  577. 

92.  Caulkins,  New  London,  p.  236. 

93.  Rhode  Island  Col.  Records,  vol.  1,  p.  150. 

94.  Connecticut  Col.  Records,  vol.  2,  p.  28. 

95.  Caulkins,  New  London,  p.  254-255. 

96.  Rhode  Island  Col.  Records,  vol.  1,  p.  337. 

97.  Massachusetts  Col.  Records,  vol.  4,  part  2,  p.  394. 

98.  Caulkins,  New  London,  p.  253. 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  933 

99.  Same  reference. 

100.  Massachusetts  Acts  and  Resolves,  vol.  1,  p.  444. 

101.  Edwards,   History   of  the   British   Colonies  in   the   West   Indies, 

vol.  3,  p.  259. 

102.  Caulkins,  New  London,  p.  236. 

103.  Savary  Desbrulons,  Dictionary  of  Trade  and  Commerce,  vol.  1, 

p.  853.    Campbell,  Considerations  on  Sugar  Trade,  p.  6. 

104.  Oldmixon,   British   Empire  in  America,  vol.   2,   p.   163.     Ashley, 

British  Colonies  in  America,  vol.  2,  p.  6. 

105.  Anderson,  Orio^in  of  Commerce,  vol.  2,  p.  72,  386-387.     Oldmixon, 

British  Empire  in  America,  vol.  2,  p.  160. 

106.  Hall,  Importance  of  British  Plantations  in  America,  p.  44. 

107.  Same  reference,  p.  45,  50. 

108.  Rhode  Island  Col.  Records,  vol.  6,  p.  60.    New  York  Docs.  Relative 

to  Col.  Hist.,  vol.  5,  p.  556,  and  vol.  6,  p.  127,  393. 

109.  Bennett,  Letters  and  Calculations  on  Sugar  Colonies  and  Trade, 

no.  1,  p.  63. 

110.  New  York  Docs.  Relative  to  Col.  Hist.,  vol.  5,  p.  597. 

111.  Ashley,  British  Colonies  in  America,  vol.  2,  p.  70. 

112.  Letter  from   Governor  Robert  Lowther  to  the   Board   of   Trade, 

October  25,  1715.  Colonial  Office  Papers  28  :  15  —  T  101  (quoted 
by  Pitman,  Development  of  British  West  Indies,  p.  202). 

113.  Anderson,  Origin  of  Commerce,  vol.  2,  p.  335-338. 

114.  This  part  of  the  memoir  follows  the  general  account  of  the  effects 

and  enforcement  of  the  Molasses  Act  as  given  by  Beer,  British 
Colonial  Policy,  chapter  3,  and  chapter  9,  p.  230-231. 

115.  New  England  Papers,  B.  T.,  vol.  3,  p.  121,  in  British  State  Papers 

Office  (quoted  by  Arnold,  History  of  Rhode  Island,  vol.  1,  p. 
488).  Rhode  Island  Col.  Records,  vol.  4,  p.  60.  Report  of  Gover- 
nor Jenks  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  in  1731  (cited  by  Arnold,  His- 
tory of  Rhode  Island,  vol.  2,  p.  106). 

116.  The  general  importance  of  the  export  trade  of  New  England  in 

horses  is  emphasized  by  the  following  writers :  Hall,  Importance 
of  the  British  Plantations  in  America,  p.  104;  Bennett,  Letters 
and  Calculations  on  the  Sugar  Colonies  and  Trade,  letter  4,  p.  5  ; 
Little,  State  of  Trade  in  the  Northern  Colonies,  p.  35;  Savary 
Desbrulons,  Dictionary  of  Trade  and  Commerce,  vol.  1,  p.  344, 
367;  Ashley,  British  Colonies  in  America,  vol.  2,  p.  99. 

117.  A  summary  of  this  controversy  is  given  in  Anderson,  Origin  of 

Commerce,  vol.  2,  p.  335-338. 

118.  New  York  Docs.  Relative  to  Col.  Hist.,  vol.  5,  p.  556,  and  vol.  6, 

p.  127,  393. 

119.  An  account  of  this  contraband  trade  and  the  measures  adopted 

to  check  it  is  given  in  Beer,  British  Colonial  Policy,  chapters  6 
and  7. 


934  Deane  Phillips 

120.  New  York  Docs.  Relative  to  Col.  Hist.,  vol.  6,  p.  226,  and  vol.  7, 

p.  164. 

121.  Wm.  Popple  to  the  Lords  of  Admiralty   (Adm.  Sec.  In  Letters, 

3819,  Eng.  Pub.  Rec.  Office),  quoted  by  Beer,  British  Colonial 
Policy,  p.  111. 

122.  Edwards,   History   of  the   British   Colonies  in   the   West   Indies, 

vol.  3,  p.  258. 

123.  Beer,  British  Colonial  Policy,  chapter  13. 

124.  Calendar  of-  State  Papers,   Col.   Ser.,   1661-1668,  p.   144.     Same 

reference,  1675-1676, .  p.  314.    Savary  Desbrulons,  Dictionary  of 
Trade  and  Commerce,  vol.  1,  p.  826. 

125.  Oldmixon,  British  Empire  in  America,  vol.  2,  p.  396. 

126.  Same  reference. 

127.  Same  reference,  vol.  2,  p.  147. 

128.  Rhode  Island  Commerce  (Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc,  Collections,  7th 

ser.,  vol.   9,  no.   69,  p.   183,   271,   319,   390).     New  York  Docs. 
Relative  to  Col.  Hist.,  vol.  5,  p.  556,  and  vol.  6,  p.  127,  393. 

129.  Elliot,  Essays  upon  Field  Husbandry,  3d,  p.  57. 

130.  Governor  Sanford  to  the  Lords  of   Trade,  British  State  Papers 

Office,   New  England  Papers,   B.   T.,  vol.   3,   p.    121    (cited  by 
Arnold,  Historv  of  Rhode  Island,  vol.  1,  p.  488). 

131.  Rhode  Island  Col.  Records,  vol.  4,  p.  59,  60. 

132.  Governor  Jenks  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  (cited  by  Arnold,  History 

of  Rhode  Island,  vol.  2,  p.  106). 

133.  Rhode  Island  Col.  Records,  vol.  5,  p.  13. 

134.  Douglass,  Summary,  vol.  2,  p.  99. 

135.  MacSparran,  America  Dissected    (Updike,  History  of  the  Narra- 

gansett  Church,  p.  514). 

136.  Same  reference,  p.  515. 

137.  Moses  Brown,  ms.  letter  on  commerce  (cited  by  Weeden,  Economic 

and  Social  History  of  New  England,  vol.  2,  p.  658). 

138.  Rhode   Island   Commerce    (Massachusetts   Hist.    Soc,    Collections, 

7th  ser.,  vol.  9,  no.  69,  p.  14,  16,  183,  271,  319,  390). 

139.  Stiles,  History  of  Windsor,  p.  481-489. 

140.  Caulkins,  New  London,  p.  245,  note. 

141.  Douglass,  Summary,  vol.  2,  p.  162. 

142.  MS.  Journal  in  Hartford   Courant,    April    25,    1881     (cited    by 

Weeden,  Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England,  vol.  2, 
p.  757). 

143.  Caulkins,  New  London,  p.  578. 

144.  Cooper,  Last  of  the  Mohicans,  p.  9. 

145.  Caulkins,  New  London,  p.  241. 

146.  Same  reference. 


Horse  Raising  in  Colonial  New  England  935' 

147.  Rhode   Island   Commerce    (Massachusetts   Hist.    Soc.,    Collections, 

7th  ser.,  vol.  9,  no.  69,  p.  16). 

148.  Caulkins,  New  London,  p.  254-255. 

149.  Winthrop  Papers  (Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc,  Collections,  5th  ser., 

vol..  8,  p.  386,  432,  445,  495,  532). 

150.  Stiles,  History  of  Windsor,  p.  481-484. 

151.  Channing',  The  Narragansett  Planters,  p.  5. 

152.  Potter,   History  of  Narragansett    (Rhode  Island  Hist.   Soc,   Col- 

lections, vol.  3,  p.  16). 

153.  Same   reference,  p.   275. 

154.  Same  reference,  p.  58. 

155.  Douglass,  Summary,  vol.  2,  p.  101. 

156.  Hull,  Diaries  (Amer.  Antiquarian  Soc,  Collections,  vol.  3,  p.  127). 

157.  Douglass,  Summary,  vol.  2,  p.  101. 

158.  Same  reference,  p.  107. 

159.  Johnston,  Slavery  in  Rhode  Island  (Rhode  Island  Hist.  Soc,  Pub- 

lications, n.  s.,  vol.  2,  no.  2,  p.  165). 

160.  Livingston,  Edinburgh  Encyclopedia,  vol.  1,  p.  336. 

161.  Cooper,  Last  of  the  Mohicans,  p.  14,  footnote. 

162.  Updike,  History  of  the  Narragansett  Church,  p.  515. 

163.  Wallace,  The  Horse  of  America,  p.   174. 

164.  Winthrop  Papers   (Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc,  Collections,  5th  ser., 

vol.  8,  p.  446). 

165.  Updike,  History  of  the  Narragansett  Church,  p.  514. 

166.  Savary  Desbrulons,  Dictionary  of  Trade  and  Commerce,  p.  348. 

Calendar  of  State  Papers,   Ireland,   1625-1632,  p.  536. 

167.  Updike,  History  of  the  Narragansett  Church,  p.  514. 

168.  MacSparran,  America  Dissected   (Updike,  History  of  the  Narra- 

gansett Church,  p.  490). 

169.  Same  reference.     Watson,  Annals  of  Philadelphia,  p.  209. 

170.  Updike,  History  of  the  Narragansett  Church,  p.  515. 

171.  Caulkins,  History  of  Norwich,  p.  478-479. 

172.  Caulkins,  New  London,  p.  578. 

173.  Same  reference,  p.  640. 

174.  Edwards,   History   of   the   British   Colonies   in  the   West   Indies, 

vol.  3,  p.  273. 

175.  Same  reference. 

176.  Elliot,  Essays  upon  Field  Husbandry,  2d,  p.  21. 

177.  Updike,  History  of  the  Narragansett  Church,  p.  515. 

178.  Same  reference  (letter  of  I.  P.  Hazard). 

179.  Watson,   Annals   of   Philadelphia,   vol.   1,   p.   210.     Wallace,   The 

Horse  of  America,  p.   182. 

180.  Wallace,  The  Horse  of  America,  p.  95,  144,  183.     Craig,  Pacing 

Horse,  Standardbred  (Cyclopedia  of  Agriculture,  vol.  3,  p.  476). 


936  Deane  Phillips 


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(?).     Some  considerations  upon  the  biU  in  the  House  of 

Lords  relating  to  trade  between  the  northern  colonies  and  the  sugar- 
islands.    London.    1732. 


Memoir  50,  The  Relative  Growth-Promoting  Value  of  the  Protein  of  .Coconut  Oil  Meal, 
and  of  ComMnations  of  It  with  Protein  from  Various  Other  Feeding  Stuffs,  the  fourth 
preceding  number  in   this   series  of  publications,  was  mailed   on  March   9,    1922. 

Memoir  51,  The  Hog  Louse,  Haematopinus  suis  Linne:  Its  Biology,  Anatomy,  and  His- 
tology, was  mailed  on  March  9,  1922. 

Memoir  52,  Studies  in  Pollen,  with  Special  Reference  to  Longevity,  was  mailed  on 
March  9,  1922. 


amilyXibrac  of  Veterinafy  Medicine 
5  School  of  Veterinary  Medicine  at 
ersity 

)oro  Road 
ton.  MAflifii^fi 


